Despite everything Alex Ovechkin has accomplished in his first three years in the NHL, including the incredible regular season he just completed, he was just like every other 22-year-old suiting up for his first postseason game.
He was nervous.
Really nervous in fact — enough that Ovechkin felt it affected his play in the opening stages of his Washington Capitals’ conference quarterfinal contest with the Philadelphia Flyers last night at Verizon Center.
It is safe to say he overcame the nerves, and his first NHL playoff goal certainly was a memorable one.
Ovechkin potted the game-winner with 4:32 remaining in the third period of a wild 5-4 victory for the Caps.
“I don’t think I would be so nervous,” Ovechkin said.
“You can see if first two periods I have great chances to score goals. I said, ’Just calm down, calm down. It is coming and we’re still in the game.’ … [It] was one of the biggest goals of my career.”
Ovechkin deflected a pass by Flyers defenseman Lasse Kukkonen intended for his partner Jaroslav Modry back to Kukkonen. Then as Kukkonen tried to skate the puck out of danger, Ovechkin swooped in and lifted his stick in front of Philadelphia goaltender Martin Biron to steal the puck.
He skated to the right, waited for Biron to go down and roofed a shot over the sprawling netminder to cap an incredible Washington comeback.
“It is amazing in sports how great moments follow great players,” Caps coach Bruce Boudreau said. “They just seem to be in the right place at the right time. If you are a star baseball player, it seems like you are coming to bat with the runner on second base. Those are things that happen.
“For his first playoff game, he finished it off OK.”
Down by two entering the final period, defenseman Mike Green got the Caps even with a pair of goals less than five minutes apart early in the third. He cut the lead in half 1:50 in on a beautiful feed from Sergei Fedorov. After Alexander Semin skated out along the left wall, he sent a pass in front to Fedorov, who directed it to a cutting Green for a one-timer from near the right faceoff circle.
Green tied the game with a power-play goal at 6:26.
His first slap shot from the point hit a diving Patrick Thoresen in the groin. The Flyers forward remained crumpled on the ice, and the Caps kept possession with essentially a 5-on-3, and Green’s second blast from the point beat Biron.
Thoresen was taken to a Washington Hospital Center after the game and Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren said he might need to have a testicle removed.
“Obviously I’d have liked to seen a whistle with the result there,” Flyers coach John Stevens said. “But the explanation we got is that if it look like he was in danger, if it was above the upper-body area, then they would’ve blown it down. He was clearly in pain and did not return, so it’s water under the bridge now.”
Daniel Briere and Vinny Prospal each had a pair of goals to stake the Flyers to a 4-2 lead after 40 minutes. Washington would have really been in trouble if not for the work of the team’s fourth line.
The Caps received the first goal of the series from an unlikely source. Two seconds after Philadelphia’s Mike Knuble was released from the penalty box for slashing, Donald Brashear turned a fortuitous bounce into his third career play goal in 50 games.
Tom Poti’s shot from the point glanced off Bradley and then hit Modry’s skate right to Brashear at the right of Biron and he flipped it into the open net and leapt into Bradley’s arms behind the net in celebration 3:16 into the opening period.
After Prospal tied it, David Steckel — back in the lineup after missing 14 games with a broken finger — gave the Caps a 2-1 lead 4:08 into the second period.
Bradley slipped Steckel a backhanded pass from behind the net before getting crunched into the boards. He collected it near the right faceoff circle and tucked a wrist shot under the crossbar over Biron’s left shoulder.
“From my AHL experience, I can tell you that secondary scoring is what wins playoff games most of the time,” Steckel said.
The Caps will not have much time to dwell on the victory because Game 2 is tomorrow afternoon at Verizon Center. And considering the mistakes the team made to find itself in a two-goal hole after the second period, there will be plenty to discuss at practice today.
“It’s one win — we haven’t done anything,” Boudreau said. “We knew before the series whether we won or lost, we weren’t going to win the series tonight. It wasn’t like beating Florida and making a playoff spot. We’re pretty excited, but we’ve got to leave that excitement here.
“We got lucky, and we’re going to have to play better if we want to win [tomorrow].”
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