Capitals, Connolly aim for Cup
TAMPA — More than three minutes remained in the game, but Alex Ovechkin was on the bench, his gap-tooth smile unmistakable and wide. He raised both arms and hugged whoever was next to him. This Game 7 was a blowout, and he knew the history that had plagued him and his team was about to change.
Then 7.3 seconds remained, and Ovechkin stood in front of his bench and was wrapped in a few more embraces. Then time finally ran out, and Ovechkin hopped off the bench and kicked up a leg before he was flanked by teammates Nicklas Backstrom and T.J. Oshie.
Finally, Ovechkin grabbed the Prince of Wales Trophy for the Eastern Conference champions, unafraid of the superstition about not touching it, maybe because this team has already overcome so many odds. With the 4-0 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning in the deciding game of the Eastern Conference final, Washington will play the Vegas Golden Knights in the Stanley Cup final starting Monday in Nevada.
This is just the organization’s second Game 7 victory on the road, and the team hasn’t advanced to the championship round in 20 years. For all but one player on the roster, this is a first.
The Capitals won this Game 7 with two goals from Andre Burakovsky, the inconsistent young winger who had been scratched just games earlier in this series and then admitted to needing to see a sports psychologist this season because he’s often too hard on himself. They won Game 7 with goaltender Braden Holtby pitching a second straight shutout, his only two shutouts of the season, after he had lost the starting job going into the playoffs. Washington won Game 7 with Ovechkin, the captain whose career has been associated with individual greatness but no significant team success.
It took just 62 seconds for Ovechkin to make his mark on Wednesday’s game. On his first shift, centre Evgeny Kuznetsov flicked a pass to him at the top of the left faceoff circle, and Ovechkin one-timed it, a fluttering, knuckling puck that got past Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy.
The Capitals clung to that lead for the rest of the first period, and they seemed on the brink of los- ing it to start the second period. Then 8:59 into the second, Lars Eller’s chip into the offensive zone bounced off Lightning defenceman Dan Girardi, who had trouble corralling the puck. Burakovsky swiped it from him, dangled around him and then found the small hole between Vasilevskiy’s elbow and pad to extend the Capitals’ lead. That was just the team’s second shot of the frame.
Prince George’s Brett Connolly is a member of the Capitals, and was originally drafted by the Lightning. Connolly, who has four goals and six points in 19 playoff games, will now play for the Cup.
Lane Lambert, a former head coach of the Prince George Cougars, is in his fourth season as an assistant with the Capitals.