Rangers 4 - Capitals 5 OT
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Tonight's "Eighties Night" game started off festive & ended very festive for Washington Capitals fans. I wonder if the New York Rangers knew they'd be traveling back in time before the red mulleted fans started pouring into the arena for this evening's contest. Maybe Henrick Lundqvist's save percentage was damaged while he was distracted by what was going on in the stands around him. The goal lights got a workout at both ends of the ice in this one.
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At 2:14 into the first period Protector Of The Realm Donald Brashear and Ranger's #1 Thug Colton Orr were awarded matching five minute majors for fighting. It was a beauty. Colton got in a few good rights, before Donald used his left to colorize Colton's face & blacken another eye as the Ranger went down hard. About a minute later, Olie Kolzig moving quickly from one side of the goal to the other, made a highlight reel save on a very good attempt by Martin Straka. And even though the final score doesn't reflect it, there would be a few more like that throughout the evening. At 12:10 though, it was the Rangers' Scott Gomez who scored the first goal off a Paul Mara pass. Less than two minutes later, Straka got that goal he was looking for earlier. It was a tic-tac-toe play that started with Brandon Dubinsky behind the net who sent the puck to Jaromir Jagr, who got it to the front of the net, where Straka was ready to launch it toward the net. The Rangers led 2-0. Shortly after that, play was stopped for a bit when Lundqvist stopped a hard Alexander Ovechkin shot with his nether regions. That slapping noise you heard at the time of impact, was every man in the arena slamming his "pads" together.
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Still in the first, Brashear pushed Dan Girardi off the puck & got it over to Brooks Laich, who passed it along to Joe Motzko. Motzko then sent it into the back of the net for his first goal as a Cap. At 18:12 Matt Pettinger thought he had tied it up. But, video review showed the puck riding along the goal line, never completely crossing it. The odd thing was that even though Referee Dan O'Rourke waived off the goal during play, he also blew his whistle, stopping play. If he could see the puck & it wasn't across the line, then there was no reason to stop play.
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About four minutes into the second, Ovechkin drove in toward the net & was taken down from behind in the crease, keeping him from scoring. Apparently, I was the only one who saw the take down. There was no call from the referee or announcers Joe Beninati & Craig Laughlin. Then, with about four minutes left in the period, Motzko got his second goal of the game. The middle stanza ended with the game tied 2-2.
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During the second intermission, as in the first, Comcast SportsNet presented some nice features in addition to the usual player interview. They have started showing a lot of old Caps game video footage between periods. Probably more so tonight, since it was Eighties Night. They also included some more Hershey Bears footage, which I really enjoyed.
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About four & a half minutes into the third period, Ovechkin redirected a Mike Green shot for his 22nd goal of the season. That put the Caps ahead by one & had a very excited Ovechkin jumping in the air. Right at the end of a Matt Bradley holding penalty, Straka took a pass from Brendan Shanahan & put it past Olie to tie it back up again. Then, at 9:31 Jeff Schultz got one in from between the blue line & the top of the face off circle. Caps ahead by one....at least for a little while. During a lot of traffic in Kolzig's crease, Olie thought he had the puck trapped with a leg pad. But, the puck squirted out. Instead of getting it back under Kolzig to freeze the puck & stop play, Nicklas Backstrom tried to clear the puck. The puck ended up on Shanahan's stick & he sent it behind a very surprised Olie Kolzig. There was no way he could have stopped that one. Olie was furious, none the less. Washington's Mike Green put on a puck contol clinic shortly before the third ended. He zig-zagged past a diving Shanahan & Gomez while driving to the net, but couldn't get the puck through Lundqvist. So at the end of regulation, all tied up at four apiece.
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In overtime, the Ranger's Chris Drury got his only real chance of the game. But once again, Olie mad a nice save. Then, future Hall Of Famer Brendon Shanahan stumbled while skating with the puck. Brooks Laich grabbed the puck with his stick & raced toward the other end of the ice. Mike Green caught up & Brooks passed the puck over to him. Green waisted no time & shot the puck into the net for the overtime game winner!
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That's three wins in a row now. The hopes & dreams of many Caps fans have no doubt been reignited. But they have not won three straight since they started off the season by winning their first three. They are going to have to have many more winning streaks of three or hopefully more to make it to the playoffs this season.
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