Ovechkin lifts Caps to 3-2 win
Alexander Ovechkin may not be seeing the amount of ice time he wishes, buy he made it count late in the third period, scoring off a face off of a Washington power play to lift the Capitals to a 3-21 win and knot the series up at 1-1. The Ovechkin bomb off the face off was perfectly screened by Nicklas Backstrom and Troy Brouwer.
The Caps took a 2-0 lead late into the first period. Mike Knuble started off the scoring over the 12 minute mark, taking a Lundqvist rebound and burying it. The goal was assisted by Keith Aucoin and Joel Ward. Jason Chimera would give the Capitals a 2-0 lead on a 3 on 2 break with Matt Hendrick and Jay Beagle with Hendrick feeding Chimera and catching Lundqvist out of position. The Caps would give up a late first period goal to Brad Richards to head into the first intermission with a 2-1 lead.
The Caps and Rangers skated to a scoreless second period in which the Rangers out shot the Caps 8-6.
Ryan Calllahan would knot the game up at 2-2 on the Rangers power play at the 6:58 mark of the final frame. That is exactly where the scored stayed until the Ovechkin bomb and the ultimate game winner.
Braden Holtby recovered from a questionable performance in Game 1 to stop 24 of 26 shots on net to preserve the win for the Caps. Holtby wasn't the sharpest he has been int he Boston series tonight, but he was good enough.
The series comes back to Washington DC for a Wednesday Game 3 at the Verizon Center.
Dale Hunter could do us Washington Capitals a few favors. First, start Dmitri Orlov over Roman Hamrlik. Hamrlik is becoming a flat out liability with the puck. Second, get some beef back in with John Erskine over Jeff Schultz.
