Every sport has their great story of finally beating their biggest rivals en route to a historical run. Hockey had theirs last year with the Washington Capitals.
On May 7, 2018 the Washington Capitals had another-but-past-elusive opportunity to knock off their big dragon in the form of a flightless bird: the Pittsburgh Penguins.
In the grand scheme of things, what happened a month later was even bigger but one moment doesn’t lead to the other. Even though the Capitals had a 3-2 series advantage they were still a couple men down.
Despite that, the Capitals showed that they were a championship team that spring because guys like Alex Chiasson and Nathan Walker had impacts in that game.
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Andre Burakovsky and Nicklas Backstrom were both absent due to injuries. The former was hurt in the first round while Backstrom broke his hand in the previous game, which was a thrilling come from behind win that will go down as a classic in itself at Capital One Arena.
In that game, Jakub Vrana had the game-winning goal set up by the captain Alex Ovechkin that brought down the house.
Fast forward to Game 6 two night’s later. Remember those names from earlier? Nathan Walker and Alex Chiasson? The two connected to give the Capitals an early 1-0 lead 2:13 into the second period.
Walker’s playoff debut that night was historic being the first Australian-born hockey player to play in an NHL playoff game and the first to record a point thanks to the assist.
It was also the NHL playoff debut of Travis Boyd, who shined for the Hershey Bears during the regular season. Boyd’s biggest highlight came in a February game against the Laval Rocket.
Just five nights prior, Boyd arrived home from a Bears win over Rochester finding his daughter Hayden in severe pain. After spending a week with his daughter in the hospital, he joined his teammates in Laval that Friday night.
Boyd told his daughter that he would score a goal for her but he did even better than that. Boyd scored four in the 6-3 win.
We spent a long, hard, and sleepless week in the hospital caring for Hayden. Beyond thankful for a successful surgery, her amazing mother, all the support and for being able to score 4 goals for our little girl tonight! pic.twitter.com/76HDDfKHqH
— Travis Boyd (@Tboyd93) February 17, 2018
After Chiasson’s goal, the Penguins tied it at 11:52 with a goal from Kris Letang. It was a defensive battle with just two penalties the whole game, both coming in the first period with one by each team. The refs let the rivals play and the game went to overtime.
In the extra session, Ovechkin capitalized on a turnover from Sidney Crosby. He found a wide-open Evgeny Kuznetsov and then you know the rest by now.
For an entire generation of fans, including the writers of this site, they were born after the last Washington D.C. major four sports championship. The Capitals did reach the Stanley Cup Finals once but it wasn’t during the Alex Ovechkin-era.
It actually came 20 years prior. The last time the Capitals beat the Penguins? That drought was even longer. That was the first time since 1994 in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals.
Even though the Capitals aren’t playing playoff hockey right now, guess what Caps fans.. neither are the Penguins! That means another year of reminding your buddies from Pittsburgh all about this game.