This is it, folks. Game 7. The big enchilada. The whole pie o’ marbles.
And the Capitals made sure they would be the ones in front at the first intermission.
Just two and a half minutes into this contest, Andre Burakovsky stole the puck from Carolina’s Brett Pesce in the offensive zone, then called his own number and ripped a shot past Petr Mrazek to make it 1-0 Washington early.
Then, just five minutes later, Alex Ovechkin turned in one of the finest highlight-reel performances of his career, deking the actual skeletons out of the bodies of two Carolina defenders before finding Tom Wilson for the layup and the 2-0 lead.
It’s 2-0 Caps after twenty minutes.
Second period ahead…