VARLAMOV, CAPS SHUT OUT RANGERS

While the Washington Capitals managed to stave off elimination on Friday night by beating the New York Rangers 4-0, it wasn’t quite as straightforward of a victory as the final score might indicate.  Russian rookie Simeon Varlamov made 20 saves for his second shutout of the series, and Alex Ovechkin added a highlight reel goal late in the second period, but besides that it was a very strange set of circumstances at play in the Verizon Center.  Nevertheless, for the Washington Capitals the important thing is that they live to fight another day and will return to New York’s Madison Square Garden on Sunday for game six.

The game was a grinding type of affair with scoring opportunities and shots on goal at a premium.  In theory, that would favor the Rangers but here’s where the oddities surrounding this game begin—their superstar goalie, Henrick Lundqvist was awful after dominant performances in the prior games of the series.  Lundqvist gave up 4 goals on 14 shots and was yanked in the second period.  Two of the Capitals’ goals came in a first period where the teams combined for 9 shots on goal (with the Caps holding a 6-3 advantage).  Both of the Washington goals in the first period were scored by Matt Bradley—the first postseason goals of his career.   Bradley opened the scoring with a shorthanded goal at 4:58 of the first period, assisted by Boyd Gordon and Mike Green.  His second goal game less than eight minutes later, as he beat Lundqvist from an extreme angle that defied logic to give Washington a 2-0 lead.  Brooks Laich and Tom Poti assisted on his second goal, which Caps coach Bruce Boudreau commented on after the game saying:

“Every great goalie, every now and again, makes a mistake.”

Bradley’s explanation for his second goal was a little less philosophical:

"I'm not going to lie: I wasn't trying to score like that. I was just trying to get it on net."

Alexander Semin would give the Caps a 3-0 lead at 4:57 of the second period assisted by Nicklas Backstrom.  That set the stage for Washington’s final tally on Ovechkin’s second goal of the playoffs with seconds to play in the period assisted by Sergei Federov.   Ovechkin’s goal was also the end of the line for Rangers’ goalie Lundqvist as Steve Valiquette started the third period.  Valiquette stopped 7 shots in a scoreless final twenty minutes.

Despite the blowout victory, Caps coach Boudreau kept his team’s situation in perspective:

"They only have to win one. We have to win two. The pressure's all on us. You look at the odds, the odds definitely don't favor us."

His superstar player Ovechkin had a different opinion:

"We love the situation. It's hard, but we love it."

While the statistical data does favor the Rangers, they may be having a meltdown at the most inopportune time.  Their power play has sputtered, with a futile 0 for 18 mark in the past four games of the series.  The team benched Sean Avery, who made life miserable for the Caps earlier in the series but also drew six minor penalties and a ten minute misconduct in games three and four.  Rangers’ coach John Tortorella had a headed confrontation with a Capitals fan and threw a plastic water bottle at the heckler.  Factor in Henrick Lundqvist’s game 5 fiasco and you’ve got a team that could very well be unraveling under the pressure of the NHL’s postseason.  Tortorella wouldn’t address the soap opera elements specifically, but did give this generalized postgame explanation:

"Something has to give with our top guys. I'm not trying to insult them. We have some great guys in that room. This is a game where your best players have to be your best players, and it won't happen until our best players are our best players -- not kids."

Should Washington prevail in Sunday’s game six back in New York, the decisive game 7 would happen Tuesday night back on their Verizon Center home ice.  The last time a team came back from a 3-1 deficit to ultimately win a NHL playoff series was in 2004 when the Montreal Canadiens came from behind to defeat the Boston Bruins.