Caps score late, then finish off the Habs in the shootout

It took a put-back goal with 12 seconds left by the Caps to force overtime.  With the goalie pulled and having drawn a high-sticking penalty, the 6 on 4 worked for the Caps.  Backstrom wins the faceoff to the right wing Fleischmann, who crosses to Ovechkin at the point.  Ovi’s one-timer is stopped by Price, but he leaves the rebound there for Eric Fehr to put through the 5-hole.

Having suffered some late game breakdowns of their own, some last minute goals that led to losses, it was nice to see the Caps reverse the script and last second goal, then finish it off.

The first period was basically all Caps all the time.  They pressured the Habs with long periods of offensive zone time, clogged the neutral zone when the Habs tried to break out, and gave up nothing but short rushes followed by quick clears.  Fehr’s first goal was the result of one of their long zone times, with defenseman Karl Alzner making a great play from his defensive point to hold the puck in and flick a quick shot towards the net, which Fehr cleaned up.  Ovechkin’s goal just over a minute later was the result of a perfect setup by Backstrom.  The one-timer was right over Price’s blocker.  After a stupid offensive-zone penalty by recent call-up Alexandre Giroux (last year’s AHL goal leader who can’t seem to keep up at the NHL level), the Habs got some pressure on the ensuing power play.  Varlamov was forced to make a brilliant save on a wrap-around attempt; already down in the butterfly from a save, a face-first sprawl across the goal mouth kept the Caps up 2-0.

The start of the second period saw a Habs team that finally seemed to want to play some hockey.  They came out flying and started putting serious pressure on the Caps, but it took a power play to finally crack Varlamov.  A great point shot by Spacek, though the Caps let too much trafficin front of the net.  The tide turned a little bit after the Habs first goal, and the flow of the game evened up for the net few minutes.  Price made some huge saves for Montreal to keep them in the game.  The second Habs goal was a sh*tstorm of breakdowns by both Caps defenders at the same time.  Alzner fails to stay with Plekanec as he crosses to the front of the goal to get the rebound, and Jurcina doesn’t turn around to play the puck, instead playing his man into his own goalie.  It’s not to take anything away from Plekanec’s effort or his touch on his tally; he went in hard and beat his man to the puck, then found some space to put it in.  Tie game after  2.

The third period was just over three minutes old when the Habs got their chance on a stupid tripping penlty by Giroux.  The chance got a whole lot better less than a minute later when Brooks Laich took a holding penalty, giving the Habs a chance of over a minute of 5 on 3 time.  They capitalized on the chance, but not in the way one would expect.  Travis Moen took a shot from the right dot that beat Varlamov, but Varlamov had a clear view on the shooter and the puck wasn’t touched on the way in.  You expect 5 on 3 goals to be crossing passes that beat a goalie who can’t get acrosss in time, or net crashing goals where the defense simply can’t pick up every offensive player coming in.  You don’t expect to see a straight forward shot flat out beat a goalie high glove side.

The Habs then hunkered down into their trapping game, and played it to perfection for the rest of the period.  Until, of course, the very end (see above).

Overtime was pretty typical 4 on 4 hockey; lots of even man rushes up and down the ice, no real extended pressure from either side.  Neither team had a legitamite scoring chance for the 5 minutes.

So it took the shoot out to determine who would get an extra point on the night.  Varlamov stopped Camalleri, Plekanec and Lapierre, while Price stopped Fleichmann and Ovechkin before giving up the goal to the final shooter, Backstrom.