Desperation was new to the Washington Capitals’ locker room, the fear of summer starting early long a distant thought for a team that had the NHL’s best record throughout the regular season.
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“That’s a lot of pressure, to come in and have everybody think that you’re the guy that gets us over the hump that we’ve had”, Capitals defenseman Karl Alzner said.
Prior to Game 4, the biggest worry for the Penguins was who would shut down Alex Ovechkin in Letang’s stead?
Ovechkin threw his body around, skated around and through Pittsburgh’s defense and scored a power-play goal to help the host Capitals beat the Penguins 3-1 in Game 5 on Saturday night.
Right up until Washington center Nicklas Backstrom took an ill-considered interference minor against Penguins defenseman Kris Letang in the offensive zone.
“He’s our leader”, linemate T.J. Oshie said afterward. Williams added an insurance goal to wake from his postseason slumber, and Holtby did the rest.
With the Capitals facing elimination Saturday night, Ovechkin’s heavy left-handed shot extended the team’s season for at least three more days.
The first period ended in a 1-1 tie with both goals coming on power plays. Entering Saturday night’s game, Washington had scored just one power-play goal in 12 chances against Pittsburgh.
Around the league: Stars wing Jamie Benn, Capitals goalie Braden Holtby and Blackhawks wing Patrick Kane are the finalists for the Ted Lindsay Award, the Players Association’s league MVP trophy. That goal matched Washington’s power-play production from the first four games and seemed to spark the 50-goal scorer.
The reality of the situation here is that when you give Ovechkin time and space like that to fire a puck at the net, the chances are pretty good that he’s getting the goal for the Capitals. “But when we get them, we score, and that’s part of why we win the game”. Months prior, no one would have given them a chance to win the cup under Johnston.
“It was our best game so far”, centre Frans Nielsen said.
Despite an 0-for-14 showing on the power play and being outshot in each of the last two matchups, the Penguins hold a 3-1 series advantage by making the most of their even-strength opportunities and the 21-year-old Murray outplaying Vezina Trophy favorite Braden Holtby. And it’s what they’re going to need for two more games if they want to pull off a memorable series comeback. They saw the bulk of the action against Ovechkin’s line.
The Washington Capitals however had other hopes as they were not ready for their historic season to come to an end. The Capitals will get D Brooks Orpik back for Game 6 after a three-game suspension for a late hit to the head of Pittsburgh’s Olli Maatta, who remains out.
Pittsburgh wasn’t messing around this year, however, as after taking that same lead against the Blueshirts in Round 1, it eliminated them in five games.
Lovejoy, over the course of his career, has been matched up against Ovechkin quite often when their two teams play.
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Matt Cullen and Justin Williams, former teammates on the 2006 Stanley Cup-winning Carolina team, took matching minors with just a little more than three minutes remaining in the first period. With only Murray in front of him, Williams shot in the high slot, the puck dribbling through Murray’s legs and into the net, an uncharacteristic poor play by the rookie netminder. Within 30 seconds, the Penguins got a two-on-one, and Holtby went into a full split to stop a Justin Schultz shot with his glove. He didn’t start again until Game 4, and played very well! The Verizon Center crowd cheered his name appreciatively, suddenly hopeful that maybe the Capitals would find themselves back in this arena for a Game 7.
