Alexander almost collapsed with joy when Washington saved himself in the sixth match with Florida. But without his goals, the Caps still lost.
Captain of the Washington Alexander Ovechkin, who had a brilliant regular season and scored the most points for himself in 12 years, remained a pale shadow of himself in the playoffs. In the sixth match of the first round of the Stanley Cup with Florida, the Capitals’ best scorer had only one shot on target! This Ovechkin had no chance against the NHL’s leading team.
Before the sixth match, Washington had no choice – it was necessary to win in order not to end the season ahead of schedule. Therefore, the Capitals made an application that this would not be a game, but a real battle, at the very start – in the very first shift, Alexander Ovechkin used a force against defender Aron Ekblad, who, after a powerful push from the Russian, flew onto the ice. The fall did not go unnoticed for the Canadian, for some time he left the game.
A few minutes later, Washington found another victim – this time the goalkeeper of the Panthers Sergei Bobrovsky lost his helmet after his box became too crowded and he collided with Garnet Hathaway. The aggressive game of the Capitals, which surpassed the opponent in hits in the first period 26:11, did not bear any fruit: the score in the match was never opened.
The time for the first goal came at the beginning of the next 20 minutes: Nick Dowd shot Bobrovsky close, the puck bounced off the post between the goalkeeper’s legs, and the forward managed to finish it off. But the Capitals’ joy was short-lived, with Ryan Lumberg equalizing just 2.5 minutes later. Ilya Samsonov, who came out at the start of “Washington” for the third meeting in a row, could not physically do anything: the defenders missed the Florida attack, which went “2 to 0”. While the goalkeeper rushed to defend one corner, the gate was shot from the other.
In the second period, the game leveled off – the Panthers returned to their usual attacking mode, having transferred the Capitals. According to the results of forty minutes, Washington clearly lacked Ovechkin’s usual sniper grip. Although he distributed hits to the right and left, he did not threaten the gates so actively: all of his 4 shots were blocked or flew past the target.
But even with the silent captain, Washington had heroes. The third period began with an accurate shot from capital striker Justin Schultz, corrected at the gate by Niklas Backstrom. Bobrovsky was ready to trap the puck, but a rebound from the Swede thwarted his plans. A minute later, the goalkeeper of the Panthers was again left without a helmet, literally repulsing the puck after a powerful shot. “The best defense is an attack,” the Capitals logically decided, and did not slow down, continuing to climb into Bobrovsky’s position.
But the most attacking NHL team in this component is not so easy to beat. It took Florida seven minutes and one accurate throw by Claude Giroud between Samsonov’s legs to restore equality in the score. Without waiting for overtime, it seemed that the Panther captain Alexander Barkov put the final point in the meeting, who took advantage of the lightning-fast reaction of partners on the rebound — 3:2. But the Capitals did not give up just like that, and at the right moment TJ Oshie shot, who miraculously shoved the puck into Bobrovsky’s goal, fighting on the patch with an opponent. There was only one minute left before the end of regular time!
The most joyful Washington player at that moment was Ovechkin – having witnessed the goal, he jumped up, almost fell upon landing and rushed into the thick of his partners.
But in fact, it was just a breath of fresh air before an imminent death: Florida decided the fate of the series already in the third minute of overtime, masterfully playing the attack with the efforts of Giroud and Carter Verhague, who put an end to the meeting. “Washington” could not arrange the main surprise of the first round, and the winner of the regular season predictably advanced to the semi-finals of the conference.