Round One: NY Rangers @ Washington

Green first playoff goal... 2-1 Caps!

With all of the tensions and conflict here, the series becomes more dramatic and colourful than a hit Broadway play...or a Verdi opera.

The banished Tortorella watches from the rafters.

Zherdev's selfish play costs his team.

Avery redeems his sins with an assist on Gomez' goal.

The Capitals are the juggernaut against the Rangers' defensive cloak.

Green finally breaks out of his torpor with a timely tally.

Hockey as chess.

cool)

LOVE it.

What a tremendous goal by Kozlov...if that was Ovechkin that pulled that, McGuire would have had a coronary on air.

The Capitals are just playing around with the Rangers now.

What was Dubinsky thinking? All numbers all the way and he lays into him into the boards...just pathetic.

Capitals now up 5-1 after another powerplay marker. Verizon Center is going to be bumping Tuesday night...that is going to be one hell of a game 7.

PKC wrote:Capitals now up 5-1 after another powerplay marker. Verizon Center is going to be bumping Tuesday night...that is going to be one hell of a game 7.

The Blueshirts have soiled themselves in front of their faithful today.

Prince Simeon has shone as the King has had his crown knocked off.

In this debacle, is the stuff of even better drama than we have seen so far.

A Game Seven which will possibly electrify the hockey world...or represent a calamitous collapse.

Gripping stuff!

The beginning of a tectonic shift?
Or the last gasp of a dying team?

To add - interesting that Rangers have more SOG than Washington...

Acrobat wrote:The beginning of a tectonic shift?
Or the last gasp of a dying team?

And...which shift...for which team?

Stay tuned...for Tuesday!!!



cool)

i cant believe henrik got pulled two nights in a row

Isn't this exactly what happened last season (substituting the Flyers with the Rangers)?

Rags needed to get it done on that late 5-on-3.

Washington 5, NY Rangers 3

	1	2	3	T
WAS	3	2	0	5
NYR	1	0	2	3

Final

2:00 PM ET, April 26, 2009
Madison Square Garden, New York, New York

Capitals complete comeback with early attack of Rangers to force Game 7

NEW YORK -- The New York Rangers can expect beefed-up security during a return trip to Washington they never wanted to take. No one else will help protect them on the ice against the suddenly surging Capitals.

John Tortorella's view from a suite was no better than the one from the bench, and the suspended coach watched helplessly as Washington dominated his Rangers for the second straight game and put them on the brink of elimination, too.

Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist again didn't make it to the third period, and Washington defenseman Tom Poti torched his former team in the Capitals' 5-3 victory Sunday that set up a decisive Game 7 on Tuesday.

"He can't play every game like a god," Capitals star Alex Ovechkin said of Lundqvist, who had stopped 141 of 149 shots in the first four games when the Rangers grabbed a 3-1 series lead. "He can't save the game all the time.

"When we play our game, we play simple. We play hard and nobody can stop us."

Tortorella served a one-game suspension following a confrontation with a fan Friday during New York's 4-0 loss in Game 5 that sent the series back to Madison Square Garden. Tortorella squirted water into the crowd and threw a water bottle into the stands.

On Sunday, Tortorella sat high above the ice and rested his chin in his palm as the game turned from bad to worse under the Capitals' offensive onslaught.
Jim Schoenfeld, Tortorella's lone assistant coach, ran the club in his absence and said before the game that Tortorella had been sticking up for his players against slurs from the crowd.

Even the return of benched forward Sean Avery couldn't spark the Rangers, who have been outscored 9-3 since moving within one win of advancing.

"We wouldn't put this on Torts and we won't put this on Shoney," captain Chris Drury said. "We just didn't play well enough."

Tortorella will be allowed to coach Game 7 in Washington, where the Rangers claimed in a letter to NHL commissioner Gary Bettman that security was lax -- a factor they said led to the water incident.

"When you're down 3-1, there is no pressure on you," Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau said. "They expect you to lose. Now we see how [the Capitals] can handle it when they're expected to win."

The Rangers' biggest concern now might be the poor play of Lundqvist.

"He's our guy," Drury said. "We're not here without him. We know he's going to respond when push comes to shove. That's what he has done for us all year."

Poti, the subject of Rangers fans' wrath during his three-plus seasons with New York, had a goal and three assists as Washington built a 5-1 lead.

"I could care less about any of that," Poti said. "We got a win and we've got more work to do."

When Ovechkin tipped in Poti's drive for a power-play goal with 3:16 left in the second period, Lundqvist was torched for his ninth goal in 34 shots.

"You start to think about what is to come on Tuesday," Lundqvist said. "The only thing I can do is get a good practice and prepare for it."

The lone bright spot for New York was Scott Gomez's goal that tied it 1-1 8:15 in and snapped the Rangers' 0-for-18 power-play skid.

The Capitals took a 1-0 lead on Milan Jurcina's first NHL playoff goal 7:09 in, and fellow defensemen Mike Green and Poti staked Washington to a 3-1 edge in the first. Viktor Kozlov and Ovechkin pushed the advantage to four goals in the second.

That made for another easy game for rookie Simeon Varlamov, who finished with 29 saves.

For the second straight year, Washington has forced a Game 7 in the first round after trailing 3-1. The Capitals fell short at home against Philadelphia last year, but the Southeast Division champions are riding a wave that could make them the 21st team in 230 chances to come all the way back.

"We have a little bit of experience knowing what we have to do," Poti said. "We still have to come out and play a perfect game. I don't really think about momentum."

Frustration got to the Rangers in the second period when Brandon Dubinsky received 14 minutes in penalties following his hit from behind against Green. Dubinsky slammed his helmet as he walked down the tunnel to the dressing room.

Schoenfeld said Dubinsky was given a tetanus shot because he was bitten on the arm by Washington's Shaone Morrisonn during the scrum following the hit.

Capitals enforcer Donald Brashear laid out center Blair Betts in the first period with a late shot to the head. Brashear wasn't penalized and Washington grabbed the
lead for good moments later.

"It was pretty vicious," Schoenfeld said. "[Betts] is hurt significantly."

Game notes
The Capitals have won one series in which they trailed 3-1, the 1988 Patrick Division semifinal against Philadelphia. New York has never lost such a lead.

Fast Facts



• For the second straight year, the Capitals forced a Game 7 in the first round by winning Game 6 on the road.
• Tom Poti scored a goal and added three assists for his first four-point playoff game and second of his career.
• Henrik Lundqvist was pulled after the second period after allowing five goals on 20 shots.
• Washington went 2-2 on the power play after going 0-13 over the previous two games.
• The Capitals are 1-4 all-time in Game 7 while the Rangers are 3-4.
• Tuesday will be the Rangers' first Game 7 since winning the 1994 Stanley Cup Final against the Canucks.
• Teams have trailed 3-1 in a best-of-seven series 229 times and have come back to win the series on 20 occasions (8.7 percent).
-- ESPN Stats & Information

Missed the game completely. Lundqvist gets pulled two in a row, wow. Well, I picked Caps in 7 and Hawks in 6. It would be sweet to get a couple bonus points (bracket pool). Now if Carolina and San Jose come back i think I'll be in the lead.

Oh man. Rags are done. The Caps are getting on a roll and gaining momentum. I called the Rags to win this in 6, but I see a Caps win for sure now that they're heading back to Washington...

I had Rags in Six as well but the Caps seem to have figured it out. They just seem to own the Rags at this point. And how about that Varlamov? He could be this years Cam Ward.

Lundqvist should be the guy to rely on to settle down the Rangers on this one, especially against a rook in goal. Am rooting for the Caps to pull it off though, and its in their building, everything is aligning just nicely for the Caps.

Lundqvist looks tired though...