Five Years Ago Today…Round 2, Game 1

As unbelievable as it may seem, we are fast approaching the five-year anniversary of the Capitals’ Stanley Cup win. To celebrate, over the next two months we’re going to be taking you on a journey back in time to that magical run – reliving every game, five years to the day from when it was first played.

So strap in for the ups and downs, highs and lows, all leading up to a celebration of the greatest moment in franchise history.

Follow along with all of our “Five Years Ago Today…” recaps here.

The Series:

Eastern Conference Round 2 – Capitals (1) vs. Penguins (2); Series tied, 0-0
[Caps All-Access Round 1 Game 6]

The Setting:

April 26, 2018 at Capital One Arena in Washington, DC

Game in a Nutshell:

Having rattled off four consecutive wins to down the Blue Jackets in Round 1, the Capitals moved on to a very familiar foe in Round 2: the Pittsburgh Penguins. How familiar? Well, this would be the 11th time the two teams met in the postseason, which is the second-most in the expansion era, behind the Dallas Stars and St. Louis Blues (14 times). In their 10 previous series, the Caps had won just once – and to add a little salt in the wound, the Pens were coming off of series wins over the Caps in both 2016 and 2017… and went on to win the Cup.

But the past is in the past, and it was time for a new chapter to be written.

That new chapter started early, with Evgeny Kuznetsov putting the good guys on top just 17 seconds into the first period:

And then for a while it was all about the goalies, with Holtby and Matt Murray trading huge saves for the remainder of the first period (8 stops for Murray, 6 for Holtby) and the entire second period (8 saves by Murray, 10 for Holtby). Even the special teams were relatively quiet, the only infraction through the first two periods being an interference call on Tom Wilson against Sidney Crosby (and if either of the participants in that equation are shocking to you, you haven’t been watching Caps-Pens games for long enough).

So on to the third period we go, a tight 1-0 lead for the Caps in hand. The lights had barely come up on the final frame before none other than the captain himself got a two-on-one break, called his own number (smart lad that he is) and shot the puck in an almost identical spot as his countryman back in the first. A 2-0 lead for the Caps, and all was well.

Well…for a little while, anyway. Then all hell broke loose.

Less than three minutes after Alex Ovechkin’s tally, future Cap Justin Schultz fired a seemingly innocuous shot toward the net, and Patric Hornqvist got a tip on it to deflect it past Braden Holtby. A couple of minutes later, Jake Guentzel sent a pass from the point across to Sidney Crosby, who put it home to tie the game at two. A couple of minutes after that, it was Crosby with a wobbly shot toward the net that Guentzel somehow tipped, and all of a sudden it was 3-2 Penguins.

The Caps put everything they had on net after that but it wouldn’t be enough, Murray coming up big to end the period and secure the win for the Penguins.

And everyone was left to wonder…what the f&%k just happened??

Condensed Game:

Defining Moment:

Legitimately the ugliest shot you’ll ever see 87 in white take and it somehow ends up in the Caps’ net.

They Said It:

“We played pretty good tonight. We gave up some good chances, and Holts was really good early. We played a pretty good game. They scored on Crosby’s three shifts in a row to win the game in the third period, and we played pretty good, so I don’t think you need to overanalyze that.” – Matt Niskanen

“Just a big play by [Hornqvist] to get us going. We had some good looks throughout the night, He goes hard to the net and makes a great play, and that kind of jump-started us.” – Sidney Crosby

“They had good looks, we had good looks, but those three shifts changed the game.” – Evgeny Kuznetsov

“It was a little bit of a kick in the stomach.” – Barry Trotz

Under the category of famous last tweets, this gem after Game 1 (he meant “done”, not “some”):

Additional Reading:

• Caps Drop Opener, 3-2 [Vogs]
• Postgame Notebook: Opportunity Missed [Vogs]
• Guentzel, Penguins rally past Capitals in Game 1 [NHL]
• A two-goal lead is hockey’s most dangerous. For the Capitals, it’s a grenade. [WaPo]
• One thing we know about these Capitals: They can’t handle prosperity. [WaPo (Svrluga)]
• Capitals focused on Game 2 against Penguins [NHL]
• Penguins top line the difference in Game 1 win against Capitals [NHL]
• Ovechkin Is The Best Player To Never Make A Conference Final (and Sidney Crosby is mostly to blame) [fivethirtyeight]