“We returned their faith. And, of course, we cannot start the third period like that. We took the lead, had to play our game. We stopped doing it – and you see what it led to. We were in the lead, we had to play our hockey. But now we have to move on. This match is already in the past. Nothing can be done now. We will draw conclusions from our mistakes and prepare for the next game. “
After the starting game of the Washington – Islanders series, Alexander Ovechkin spoke the usual words about the correct conclusions, the need to move on and prepare for the next game, but he was silent about the main thing. North American journalists did not bother the superstar with questions about the goalless series, which stretched out for 4 games, the Russian himself did not want to publicly understand the reasons for his own crisis. At the same time, it was obvious to everyone – in meeting number two, the captain of “Washington” must begin to engage in his main duties, otherwise the club from the US capital risked being in a critical defeat.
Ovi himself realized the importance of Friday’s match, which he proved already in the first minute. The long-awaited goal turned out to be completely unusual for a Russian sniper – no furious shots. He successfully watched for a rebound from the side in a foreign zone, immediately rushed in the direction of a penny and outplayed Semyon Varlamov, who did not have time to warm up, with a throw from an uncomfortable hand. Celebrating the puck, the Russian seemed to have thrown off all the difficulties of the past two weeks.
One problem of “Washington” was solved, but another suddenly surfaced. Over the next 19 minutes Stolichny earned three minor penalties, and if the removal of Jakub Vrana was mutual, then Ovechkin and Tom Wilson left the team in the minority. True, the Russian did this not of his own free will – he was simply serving a sentence for violating the numerical strength. To the credit of the Caps and Braden Holtby personally, they won the period, although they lost by the number of shots on target by a twofold advantage.
But the mistakes of the first 20 minutes did not teach Todd Rearden’s team anything – after 2 and a half minutes after the break, they again found themselves in a truncated composition and this time they conceded. Defender Nick Leddy smacked from afar, but Holtby was blocked by the players and ran out of dry time. A couple more minutes passed and Washington was already losing – Dmitry Orlov was left to guard the nickel, and he played the role of a spectator, not a watchman, without noticing Matt Martin behind his back.
After two quick goals, the Capitals could have floated, but they now had Ovechkin who remembered his main skill. He quickly equalized the score, however, he did it again in an unusual manner for himself. This time number 8 worked perfectly under Varlamov’s goal, correcting the puck after Brendan Dillon’s throw. Is Ovechkin not the same? Ovechkin can only score from the left face-off circle? All these conversations could be sent back to the furnace.
Alas, the partners did not appreciate the captain’s exploits at all – it took them only 15 seconds to organize the third goal against Holtby. This time it was the Czech Jakub Vrana who made a loss on someone else’s blue line and gave Brock Nelson a 1v0 exit. There were no more goals in the second dvadtsatiminutka, and Rearden was not helped even by an attempt to combine Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Ilya Kovalchuk into one trio. “Washington” was one step away from the second defeat in the series.
The Islanders have never played in the minority in 40 minutes and Barry Trotz probably asked them to keep this nice statistic before the third period. The New York coach who led Washington to the Stanley Cup knows like no one else how dangerous Ovechkin and his partners are in 5v4 and 5v3. But Trotz’s hockey players decided to once again make sure of this in practice – in the first half of the playing segment, they retired twice. The Capitals weren’t good at playing the majority, but they got one super chance. Kuznetsov cut out a miraculous pass to Ovi, but the great sniper did not hit a completely empty frame.
This mistake eventually became fatal – “Stolichnye” were unable to organize even a semblance of a final assault, and when, 3 minutes before the siren, Dmitry Orlov made another effective mistake in his own zone, everything became clear. As a result, Ovechkin’s team lost 2: 5 and is now burning in the series with a score of 0: 2. Alexander the Great is getting closer to his second playoff failure in two years.
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