A D.C. MARVEL AS CAPITALS FORCE DECIDER IN FLORIDA
Ovechkin and Oshie make no mistake in blanking Tampa Bay in Game 6
CAPITALS 3, LIGHTNING 0
Hockey players, for the most part, prefer not to get too far ahead of the moment.
It’s one game at a time. Most often, it’s one shift at a time. But every now and then you get someone who understands the gravitas of the situation, understands what’s really at stake and understands how a season — and perhaps a legacy — is hanging in the game’s balance.
So when Alex Ovechkin was asked heading into a do-or-die Game 6 if this was the biggest game of his career, you could practically see him flashing back over 13 years of close calls, blown leads and disappointment with the Washington Capitals.
“Yeah, probably,” said Ovechkin. “It’s two steps and you’re in the Stanley Cup final … we can’t lose.”
It was as close to a guarantee as you could get. And though he didn’t land on the scoresheet, Ovechkin did everything else you could ask for to make sure they delivered on it in a 3-0 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning that forced a Game 7.
The series shifts back to Tampa Bay on Wednesday, with the winner advancing to the Stanley Cup final against the Vegas Golden Knights.
Based on Game 6, whatever opponent Vegas is facing should be plenty tired by then.
This was Ovechkin’s best game of the series. It might have been his best of the playoffs.
The Capitals, who had won the first three games on the road only to lose the next three at home, were a desperate team. Their strategy was simple: run the Lightning out of the building. They hit to hurt. And they did it often and without prejudice.
It was the kind of urgency you only seem to see when a team’s back is against the wall. As Washington’s T.J. Oshie, who scored twice, said prior to the game: “We want to prove to ourselves that we’ve got what it takes to get to the next level.”
For most of the game, both teams treated this as a Game 7. There was urgency from both sides. And with no one scoring until 15:12 in the second period, there was the sense that the first goal would be an important one. The Capitals came out as you would have expected in a do-or-die game. Then again, so did a Lightning team that wanted to finish off an opponent that was on the ropes after losing the previous three games.
Minus a goal, the first period had it all: hits, back-and-forth chances, a combined 14 shots and highlight-reel saves from Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy and Washington’s Braden Holtby. There was even a fight.
Ovechkin, who had been Washington’s best player in these playoffs, had scored two goals and four points in the first two games. But in the three losses since then had been limited to just a goal and an assist.
In Game 5, he flipped the switch to Beast Mode, hammering the puck and pretty much everyone that was in his sight. The rest of the team fed off it, with the Capitals outhitting the Lightning 29-13 after 40 minutes.
If not for Vasilevskiy, who stopped Ovechkin on a shot in the slot and then on a deflection in the first period — and also robbed Evgeny Kuznetsov of a sure goal at the side of the net — Washington would have jumped out to a commanding lead in the first.
Instead, it wasn’t until the Capitals went on the power play — their first since the second period of Game 4 — that Oshie gave Washington a 1-0 lead on a one-timer in the slot.
From there, the Capitals went into shutdown mode.
Holtby, who had been outplayed by Vasilevskiy in games 3 through 5, stopped all 23 shots he faced for the shutout. That included a flashy glove save on Nikita Kucherov, which drew “Holt-by!” chants as well as another where he stretched out and caught a one-timer from Ondrej Palat.
With 9:58 remaining in the third period, Devante- Smith Pelly made it a two-goal game and Oshie added an emptynetter. It was the top-to-bottom performance that Washington needed.
And yet the Capitals haven’t done anything yet. But if they can once again find a way to play as though their careers depend on it, Ovechkin just might have a chance to rewrite his legacy.
We want to prove to ourselves that we’ve got what it takes to get to the next level.