No one’s giving the Montreal Canadiens much of a chance to knock off the high-flying Washington Capitals in the first round. They might have given themselves their best chance to take a shot at the regular season champs with their overtime win on Thursday night, and in doing so, gave themselves a blueprint to follow for the rest of the series.
Alexander Ovechkin was held in check, not only on the scoresheet, as he failed to even register a single shot on net in over 70 minutes of play. The only one of the Caps’ big scorers that got a point was Nicklas Backstrom, who scored their 2nd goal of the game. Montreal hung with the Capitals all game, never falling behind by more than a goal, something they’ll need to do throughout the series if they wish to have a chance. The Canadiens used their speed on offense to keep the Caps off balance, and backchecked to perfection.
Mike Cammalleri scored the game’s first goal on the powerplay, whipping a wrist shot off a perfect cross-ice pass from Andrei Markov. Joe Corvo got Washington even with a floater from the point through traffic that Jaroslav Halak didn’t see until it was in the back of the net. Backstrom’s goal just 47 seconds into the 3rd gave the Caps a late lead, but Brian Gionta set up longtime teammate Scott Gomez later in the period to force overtime. Gionta had a great night, playing physical despite his lack of size, and flying all over the ice.
In overtime, Gionta probably should have had a chance to end the game on a penalty shot, after splitting the Capitals defense and breaking down the middle, but the refs didn’t even award the Habs a powerplay when he was tripped up before getting a shot off. Tomas Plekanec made sure there was controversy over the call by knifing a slap shot in off the post to end the game at the 13:19 mark of extra time.
Jose Theodore was solid despite the loss, stopping 35 shots, but Halak was even better. The Slovak made 45 saves for Montreal, but he’ll have to be just as good, if not better than he was last night if the Canadiens want to win this series.