PITTSBURGH – The comeback kids did it again.
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On the brink of elimination for the seventh time in two years, the Capitals responded the way they almost always have when faced with that daunting task. They found a way to survive.
This time it was a 5-4 overtime victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Monday night at Mellon Arena. Forward David Steckel scored the game-winner for Washington at 6 minutes, 22 seconds of the extra period. Rookie goalie Simeon Varlamov made that goal possible, meanwhile, playing well beyond his 21 years with 38 saves on 42 Pittsburgh shots.
Up next » Game 7
Penguins @ CapitalsWhen » Wednesday, 7Where » Verizon CenterTV/Radio » CSN(HD)/106.7 FM/XM» Monday night’s 5-4 overtime win over the Penguins sets up yet another Game 7 at Verizon Center. How many of these can one fanbase take? The Caps lost to the Flyers in overtime of Game 7 last year in the first round. Sergei Fedorov’s goal late in regulation took out the Rangers in a first-round Game 7 last month. But this one will be the biggest of all with the winner advancing to the Eastern Conference finals starting Sunday against either No. 1 seed Boston or No. 6 seed Carolina. Washington is now 6-1 in elimination games under Bruce Boudreau and 7-1 if the regular-season finale against Florida last year – which clinched a playoff spot — is included.
So instead of packing their gear away for the summer, the Caps instead headed home to the District with visions of another Game 7 dancing in their heads. That will be Wednesday night at Verizon Center — the perfect way to end what has been a thrilling Eastern Conference semifinal series.
“Right now we feel more energy and more excited than Pittsburgh,” said Caps forward Alex Ovechkin. “They knew it was going to be hard if they lost to come back in our building. It’s going to be crazy over there. And we’re going to be flying out there, too.”
Steckel’s goal was sweet redemption after he missed a wide-open net in overtime of Game 5. Moments after that missed opportunity Saturday night, Pittsburgh scored when an Evgeni Malkin crossing pass smacked off the stick of Caps defenseman Tom Poti and into his own goal. Steckel was devastated over that sudden turn of events, which left his team down 3-2 and headed back to Pittsburgh after winning the first two games of the series.
This time, Steckel won the faceoff in Washington’s offensive zone on the winning play. The puck found its way to Brooks Laich, who passed to teammate Matt Bradley before receiving the puck back. Laich took a wrister from near the blueline and Steckel drove hard to the net, tipping the puck between the legs of Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury (19 saves on 24 shots).
“I was really down after that [Game 5 play],” Steckel said. “It was right there. And two minutes later you lose a game like that. So I told myself if I had a chance to do it again I wouldn’t miss. Obviously a different situation there, but it feels good.”
The win marked the third series in a row the Caps have fought off elimination in Game 6 at their opponents’ arena — at Philadelphia last spring and at both New York and now Pittsburgh this year.
Neither team ever led by more than a goal. The score was tied on four separate occasions and they traded the lead five times. Defenseman Kris Letang — the overtime hero of Game 3 for Pittsburgh — quickly put his team up 3-2 in the third period on a power-play goal at 4:40.
But it took the Caps all of 58 seconds to answer when forward Alexander Semin potted a power-play marker of his own with Laich waiting in front of the net. A bad bounce 29 seconds later — after an Alex Ovechkin shot and a screen on Fleury set by his own defenseman, Hal Gil — set up Viktor Kozlov’s second goal of the night. That bad-angle shot from left of the goal put Washington up 4-3.
But with just 4:18 left, Penguins forward Sidney Crosby tied the game again, pushing home a shot from the point by defenseman Rob Scuderi and sending the sellout crowd into a frenzy and the two teams to their third overtime of the series.
“There was a lot of talk before the series started and it was everything it was made up to be,” Crosby said. “Would have loved to have finished it off here, tonight, there’s no doubt. We did a lot of good things that it could have worked out that way. But let’s just say we’re not surprised it’s going seven.”
History was against the Caps after Crosby’s goal. They had lost their last seven Stanley Cup playoff overtime games, including Game 3 and Game 5 in this series against the Penguins. And it almost happened again when Scuderi fired a puck off the crossbar. Instead, it sailed harmlessly away and gave Steckel the chance to win the game moments later. He also atoned for a slashing penalty taken at 4:31 of the third that led almost immediately to Letang’s goal.
“Steckel has been with me for five years now,” said Caps coach Bruce Boudreau, who coached the 27-year-old Wisconsin native at AHL Hershey. “He’s a big-game guy. When he took the penalty and they scored the goal he kept saying on the bench ‘Just get one back for me.’ He thought he had let them down. He ended up getting the winning goal and it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.”
