That Williams, 34, was making jokes at a time when the Capitals are facing familiar questions about their past postseason failures demonstrated his grasp of the obvious and one of the reasons general manager Brian MacLellan signed him to a two-year, $6.5 million contract last summer. That gives Carlson 11 points (four goals and seven assists) for the playoffs, leaving him one point shy of a Caps single playoff season record for points by a defenseman, now held by Kevin Hatcher (1988) and Scott Stevens (1988).
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Alex Ovechkin’s teammates watched him turn his game up to a whole new level. The Caps lost two one-goal games in Pittsburgh, and they are not scoring enough goals.
The Washington Capitals are up against it in their second-round series against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The power play goal was the first by the Penguins during this playoff series against the Capitals.
“It felt like we were going out for a pre-game skate and then all of a sudden you’re playing”, Blues coach Ken Hitchcock said.
“Just with the way the games have been going in this series, just the weird bounces, sometimes it feels the game is against you”, Holtby said Saturday night after a season-saving Game 5 win for the Washington Capitals over the Pittsburgh Penguins. “(Captain Ryan McDonagh) threw a puck to the net and it hits one of our defensemen, goes in, and they end up winning in overtime and that sort of changed it”. “The guys responded well”. Alexander Ovechkin blasted a wicked shot off Murray, who couldn’t control the rebound, and right winger T.J. Oshie was able to flick the puck into the back of the net to make it 2-1 with exactly four minutes elapsed in the second period. Holtby is 5-5 and ranks second in the league with a 1.59 goals-against average and a.945 save percentage in the playoffs. “Holtby!” from the sellout crowd at Verizon Center hoping it wasn’t seeing its final game of the season.
This ultimately led to the Penguins taking bad penalties and giving the Capitals more chances with the man advantage. “If we can do more of the same, I think we’ll be on the right side of things after Game 6”. “We’re pretty deep, we rely on our goalie to make some saves, and he did exactly what we needed there”.
“We felt after that last game we played a couple really good periods, some of our better periods of the playoffs”, said Pavelski, whose apparent goal in the first overtime in Game 4 was waved off for goaltender interference.
Matt Murray stopped just 16 shots for the Penguins, who host Game 6 on Tuesday.
What it means: The Penguins are still in a great spot to close out the series with Game 6 in the friendly confines of Consol Energy Center.
“They’re a good defensive team and it’s the playoffs, it’s hard to get scoring chances”, Hornqvist said.
Not only did the Capitals take the bodies of the Penguins, they shadowed over start players like Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, doing everything they could to get in the heads of Pittsburgh.
The Penguins have gotten the best of the Capitals this season as they’ve won six of the 10 meetings overall. No, if the Stars have anything to blame for their impending elimination it’s their tepid power play (goalless again on Saturday) and poor coverage in their own zone that leaves their netminders out to dry in this series. “All we’ve got to do is win one game”.
“And I think he’s fine with that and I think we’re fine with that too”, said Caps blue-liner Karl Alzner.
Notes: Washington had killed off 14 consecutive penalties and 37 of 38 in the playoffs before Kunitz’s goal. D Nate Schmidt returned to the Capitals’ lineup after being a healthy scratch in Game 4.
Such performances have been par for the course for Pittsburgh since Sullivan replaced Mike Johnston in mid-December.
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Game 5 of this best-of-seven series is Sunday.
