Capitals reach first NHL semis since 1998
Washington’s deepest play-off run in 20 years
Seven-time scoring champion Alexander Ovechkin has finally reached the Stanley Cup play-off semi-finals in his 13th National Hockey League season, sparking the Washington Capitals’ deepest play-off run in 20 years.
The 32-year-old Russian winger celebrated after Washington’s 2-1 overtime triumph at Pittsburgh ousted the two-time defending champions, the Penguins, 4-2 in the best-of-seven second round, advancing the Capitals to an Eastern Conference Final matchup against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
“Nobody expected we were going to be in this position before this season, in this game and in this play-offs,” Ovechkin said. “We beat the twice Stanley Cup champions, and it gives us a pretty good feeling about ourselves.”
The Penguins eliminated Washington in nine of their 10 prior play-off meetings, including the past two years when they went on to win the Cup. Washington’s only prior playoff series win over the Penguins was in 1994.
The Capitals with Ovechkin had gone 0-6 when they were within one victory of reaching the conference finals until Evgeny Kuznetsov’s goal 5:27 into overtime sent Pittsburgh packing and the Capitals into a delighted frenzy of celebrating on the ice.
“Thank God this happened. We move forward and I can’t wait,” Ovechkin said.
The Capitals have not been so deep into the playoffs since reaching their only Stanley Cup Final in 1998, when they were swept by the Detroit Red Wings, the history of secondround flops in the Ovechkin era ended at last.
“We believe in each other. The situation is it doesn’t matter what happened in the past. We have to stick together,” Ovechkin said.
The year wasn’t without some heartache for Ovechkin, who years ago had vowed to be part of the Russian Winter Olympic team at Pyeongchang even if the NHL did not shutdown to send players. It didn’t, but Ovechkin abided by rules preventing players from going and watched from afar as his countrymen won gold as Olympic Athletes from Russia.
Ovechkin, the Capitals’ captain, scored 49 goals this season to win his seventh NHL goals crown in 11 campaigns. He has 607 career regular-season goals and 54 playoff tallies and finally a berth in the NHL’s Final Four.
This year, Ovechkin has eight goals and seven assists in 12 play-off games.