After a lackluster and borderline pathetic offensive showing and not being able to match the Cane’s pressure, the Capitals went back to the drawing board and cooked up a much better overall gameplan and it showed big time in the 3-1 win in the nation’s capital.
This was a must win game in my opinion especially how we played in game 1.
After a back and forth in the first where the boys played much better in the 5v5 play but those Canes man they shoot and shoot often. LT and the Cap’s defense were able to keep the game the game scoreless going into period 2.
A couple minutes into the 2nd period after a failed dump in by Carolina Connor McJesus stole the puck and used his wheels to beat the Cane’s defense for a breakaway and wristered the shot past the Hurricane’s goalie for the big 1-0 lead. This was his 4th goal of the playoffs and is tied with Ovi for goals.
We had a couple more chances in the 2nd none more than the one that Beauvy just couldn’t corral enough for the wide open goal chance. When I saw this miss I thought here we go this is going to cost us the game.
Then we head to the 3rd where we had an early power-play chance and boy did they capitalize on the chance. After some great puck movement from Strome to Wilson then finding a wide open crashing Carlson for the easy goal to give the boys the 2-0 lead, but as they say the most dangerous lead in hockey. Carly tied Dino Ciccarelli for 7th most playoff goals in franchise history with 21 lamp lighters.
Then 8ish minutes later Carolina answered on a power-play of their own. After a shot on net that hit a body it ricocheted perfectly to a wide open Shayne Gostisbehere for the goal to make it 2-1 in favor of the good guys.
Tom Wilson was the x-factor tonight passing, hitting, and playing never say die defense dude was buzzing all night and specifically on this shift the guy was just everywhere and prevented possibly the game tying goal. Absolute nail gun shift from the big guy!
And you guessed it Tom Wilson got the game clincher with the empty netter to finish the game.
Our two best guys tonight were Wilson and McMichael the guys were playing out of their damn minds, making plays like this one which saved a possible high scoring chance.
As I mentioned above LT was lights out again tonight the lone goal no goalie was saving that shot. So our goalie is hot and lets hope he stays locked in.
The Capitals will now head on the road to that dump they call Raleigh and those loud group of morons they call the Caniacs.
The Morning Skate 