For the first two periods, it looked like the Montreal Canadiens would do the unthinkable, and steal both home games from the top-seeded Washington Capitals. Late in the 2nd period, however, Alex Ovechkin and the Caps woke up after slow-stepping their way through the first game and half of this series, and Nick Backstrom’s snipe less than 30 seconds into overtime sent this series back to the Bell Centre tied at 1-1.
The Capitals will probably have a goalie debate on their hands, as Jose Theodore was yanked in favor of youngster Semyon Varlamov after allowing two goals on the first two shots he faced, even though they were scattered over the first 8 minutes of play. Varlamov was solid, but not great, over the remaining 52 minutes of play, stopping 19 of the 22 shots he faced. Who starts Game 3 in Montreal remains to be seen, but there will definitely be plenty of press about who should be between the pipes. The Habs won’t have any such debate, since Jaroslav Halak was impressive again, even though he allowed six goals, making 31 saves.
Brian Gionta scored in the first minute of the game, and Andrei Kostitsyn scored the first of three goals on the night at the 7:58 mark to chase Theo. Kostitsyn would score two more goals in the 2nd, one on the powerplay with less than 3 minutes to play in the period that put the Habs up by 3, and looked like it had just about knocked the Caps out of the game. Then the Caps woke up. Backstrom scored his first goal of the game, blasting a slap shot from outside the circles that injected a shot of life into a dead Verizon Center and set the Caps up for a wild third period.
Alexander Ovechkin got his first goal of the series early in the 3rd, banging in a rebound after a beautiful low shot from rookie John Carlson, who out-waited a diving Montreal defender before letting loose a rocket from the point that Ovechkin was able to jab through Halak’s pads. Seven minutes later, Ovechkin carried the puck into the Montreal zone and found Backstrom in front for the Swede’s 2nd goal of the night that tied it at 4-4.
Washington wasn’t out of the woods just yet, as Tomas Plekanec finished offa a beautiful passing play from Mike Cammalleri and took advantage of some very poor defensive play by Mike Green to give Montreal a 5-4 lead with just 5 minutes left to play. The rookie Carlson, who played the hero in Team USA’s win over Canada in the World Juniors, tied the game with a wrister from just inside the blueline to send it to overtime. In overtime, it didn’t take Backstrom long to send everyone home, as he stepped across the blueline and wired a wrist shot over Halak and under the bar.
It was Washington’s first overtime win at home since 1998. Backstrom now has 4 goals in two games, and has been, without a doubt, the best player for the Capitals so far. If he can keep playing the way he has, and Ovechkin stays as effective as he was in the 3rd tonight, the Capitals should be much better off than they were in Game 1.