Playoff Round 1 Game #5 Recap: Caps 3 New York Rangers 1

The Capitals showed no signs of letting down at all in this one and advance to the second round of the playoffs with a 3-1 victory against the Rangers. Mike Green drew first blood in the game with a power play goal. After some rough play in the crease the puck popped out to Alex Ovechkin who wined and faked a slap shot that froze the man in front. Ovechkin instead passed the puck to Green whose initial shot was stopped but he followed the puck and deflected it in the net off a defender. A melee ensued as Ovechkin and Green celebrated and Brook s Laich took a punch to the head from Dan Girardi that appeared to hurt Girardi's hand. As the saying goes, "If you punch Brooks Laich, its you who gets hurt." Interesting enough, the goal was the only first period goal in the series for either team. It set the tone early with the Capitals dominating possession, getting the puck in deep and using a tenacious forecheck. Later in the first Green slid to block a shot and took another slap shot off his head. Green went to the dressing room and later sat on the bench but was held out for precautionary reasons. Hopefully, it will not result in another concussion that has limited his action since February. The second period featured more of the same with the Ranger unable to breakdown the Washington defense or when they did Michal Neuvirth was solid in goal. The Caps went up by two goals when Brooks Laich and Scott Hannan sprung Alex Ovechkin on the right wing. Ovechkin raced down beating All-Star Defenseman Marc Staal into the offensive zone and then beat All-Star goalie Henrik Lundqvist with a forehand, backhand move from right to left across the crease. The goal sent the sellout crowd into a frenzy and the Capitals kept pushing. In the third period with New York throwing all caution to the wind. Marcus Johansson took advantage and set up Alexander Semin with a sweet aerial pass on a 2-on-1. Semin finished it off and the Caps led 3-0. The Rangers scored with less than a minute remaining spoiling Neuvirth's shutout bid but not the day. The Caps and Rangers met at center ice for the traditional post series handshake as Washington advanced to round 2 winning 4 games to 1.

Of Note:

• Michal Neuvirth was the #1 Star of the game and finished the series stopping 140 of the 148 shots he faced. He sports a 0.946 save percentage and 1.38 GAA. Not bad for a rookie.
• Alex Ovechkin got the series clinching goal and an assist on the Mike Green score. In the five games he put up 3 goals and 3 assists for 6 points and led the team with 23 hits.
• Green was the only player to register points in all 5 games. He was second on the team in scoring, behind Ovechkin, with 1 goal and 4 assists for 5 points.
• The penalty killers stopped both New York power plays in Game 5 and allowed only 1 power play goal against in 20 chances in the series. That's a 95% kill rate. Not bad at all.
• The Rangers lead the regular season in blocked shots. In the series the Capitals blocked 104 shots to the Rangers 103. Karl Alzner and Jeff Schultz led the Caps with 15 blocks each in the five games.
• As he did throughout the series Boyd Gordon led the Capitals in the face-off dot. He won 12 of the 15 draws he took in Game 5 and was 69% effective in the five games.
• And finally hats off to Alexander Semin and Jason Chimera who came through in the Game #1 overtime and the Game #4 double overtime wins.

Official Recap
Game Summary
Event Summary

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