Blue Jackets get best of Capitals in OT — again
Sergei Bobrovsky of Columbus looked as poised facing 58 shots as he did before the game, when he calmly walked down the hallway in a buttoned-up beige trench coat.
On the Washington ice, Bobrovsky stood out even more. The goaltender with a history of playoff struggles looked like his two-time Vezina Trophy-winning self in making 54 saves as the Blue Jackets beat the Capitals 5-4 on Sunday night on Matt Calvert’s overtime winner to take a 2-0 lead in the firstround playoff series.
“He’s our best player and he was our best player by a mile tonight,” Calvert said. “It makes us confident. When you’ve got him making up for your mistakes, it’s always good. He’s been doing it all season.”
The playoff version of Bobrovsky of years past was a confounding nightmare compared to his elite play during the regular season: 3-10 with a 3.63 goals-against average and .887 save percentage.
Through two games this year, the second of which coach John Tortorella called “one of the best goaltending performances” he has seen, he has stopped 81 of 88 shots.
Alex Ovechkin scored twice and T.J. Oshie tied it with 3:35 left to give Washington a chance.
When Philipp Grubauer was pulled for allowing four goals on 22 shots, Braden Holtby made seven saves, but now the Capitals are in a hole only 49 of 361 teams (13.6%) have dug out of to win a best-of-seven series.
“Right now in hard position, but it’s going to be fun when we bounce back and tie the series,” Ovechkin said.
at Minnesota 6, Winnipeg 2: The Wild returned home, regrouped and roared back in their playoff series.
Mikael Granlund and Zach Parise had power-play goals in the first period for the spark that was missing on the road, and the Wild scored four times in the second to beat the Jets, who lead the series 2-1.
“They have been physical so we’ve got to push back,” said Jordan Greenway, who scored his first NHL goal just 20 seconds after Eric Staal sent a wrist shot past a struggling Connor Hellebuyck. Fighting pucks all night, Hellebuyck was pulled for Steve Mason at the second intermission.
“We’re in a series here,” said Hellebuyck, who made 16 saves. “We’re going to lose one once in a while. It’s how we respond to the next one.”
Mikko Koivu and Nick Seeler each had two assists and Devan Dubnyk made 29 saves, keeping the crowd loud all night.
Blake Wheeler and Tyler Myers scored for the Jets, whose trip to Minnesota was delayed by a blizzard. The Jets skipped the customary morning skate and arrived eight hours before faceoff.
“I don’t know if it made us worse, but I can say for a fact that it certainly didn’t make us better,” Jets coach Paul Maurice said.
Pittsburgh 5, at Philadelphia 1: Sidney Crosby matched a postseason best with four points on a goal and three assists to help the Penguins take a 2-1 lead in the series.
“When we needed to, we made some good plays, we got some big saves and that’s what you need this time of year,” Crosby said.
Crosby, who has 93 points in 63 career regular-season games against the Flyers, silenced the raucous crowd with a wraparound goal off a turnover midway through the first.
Derick Brassard, Evgeni Malkin and Brian Dumoulin scored in the second to make the score 4-0. Malkin and Dumoulin scored five seconds apart.