Braden Holtby turning into playoff hero for Caps, lifts Caps to 1-1 series tie

Many Capitals fans seem to resigned to the fact the Capitals would not travel very far in the playoffs, after hearing of the injuries to Michal Neuvirth and Tomas Vokoun.  They knew the Capitals would head into  the Stanley Cup Playoffs with a goalie that was playing in the AHL just three weeks ago.  What they did not expect is the fact that AHL goalie would keep the Capitals alive and be the star of the early two game series between the Caps and Bruins.

Two days after shutting the Bruins out in regulation and losing in overtime by a score of 1-0, Holtby came back and stopped an impressive 43 shots on net to lead the Washington Capitals to a 2-1 double overtime win and to even the series between the Caps and the Bruins at 1-1.  The game winning goal came in double overtime from none other than Nicklas Backstrom.  Backstrom scored just 2:56 into the second extra frame to send the Capitals bench into pandemonium and send the series back to Washington, DC all knotted up at 1-1.

Troy Brouwer gave the Capitals the early 1-0 lead on a rebound from Boston goalie Tim Thomas.  The Brouwer goal came at the 1`7:56 mark of the second period.  The Caps 1-0 lead would last until the third period at the 12:13 mark when Holtby tried to come out of the pain and poke check Benoit Pouliot, but Pouliot put it right past Holtby and send Holtby barreling down  in a collision.   Fortunately for the Caps, Holtby was not injured.

Karl Alzner, Nicklas Backstrom, Roman Hamrlik, and Mike Green all logged over 30 minutes of ice time.  Green led the Caps with 33:28 on ice.

Capitals evened the Stanley Cup playoff quarterfinal series with the Bruins at 1-1.  The series goes to Washington and the friendly confines of the Verizon Center on Monday at 7:30PM.