The Washington Capitals came back to D.C. with their first round series with the Columbus Blue Jackets tied at two.
The Washington Capitals had to come back and overcome a lousy first period but for the first time in the spring of 2018, they would get a playoff win on their home ice. In overtime too. Maybe we should’ve known by then how different that spring was.
Although the Caps were awarded a power play when Thomas Vanek was called for tripping they were caught on the short end when Matt Calvert rushed down the ice and scored a shorthanded goal at 10:08 to give the Blue Jackets an early 1-0 lead.
This was the spring of lucky bounces for the boys in red and that continued here in Game 5 when Nicklas Backstrom‘s shot trickled off David Savard’s skate and off of the back of Sergei Bobrovsky’s helmet into the net to tie the game at 13:22. Chandler Stephenson and Michal Kempny had the assists. 1-1 would be the score after 20.
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In the second, Dmitry Orlov found Evgeny Kuznetsov all alone down the ice for a breakaway which he delivered for his fourth goal of the playoffs to give the Caps the lead at 3:21.
That lead would be short-lived by one of the weirdest breakaway moves by Calvert I’ve ever seen for his second goal of the game at 4:45. He came down and as the net got off he turned to his left and backhanded it in to tie the game.
After the Caps killed off a penalty they got awarded a power play when Josh Anderson went to the sin bin for slashing at 16:29. 13 seconds later T.J. Oshie answered the bell to give the Caps the lead right back.
Oshie’s goal came in a deflection on a shot from downtown by John Carlson. Backstrom had the secondary assist. Oshie’s tip-in went underneath Bobrovsky’s blocker.
The Blue Jackets evened it at 2:30 in the third period on a deflection goal themselves this time from Oliver Bjorkstrand under Braden Holtby‘s arm to square it at three.
That third period saw the Caps being outshot 16-1. That’s a recipe for disaster for any high flying offensive team like the Capitals.
At 11:53 in overtime a shot from Orlov was deflected in front of the net into the goal by Nicklas Backstrom to completely flip the series and give the Caps a 3-2 edge heading back to Columbus.
Backstrom did it once again.