Alexander Semin lifts Washington Capitals to Victory over New York Rangers in First Overtime of the Playoffs
Both, Washington Capitals and New York Rangers, skirmished for a goal through their first quarterfinal matchup of the 2011 National Hockey League playoffs. Capitals finally emerged victorious after Alexander Semin fired the winning goal during the final
moments of overtime to defeat New York Ranger by 2-1 at the sold-out Verizon Centre in Washington, District of Columbia, on Wednesday.
Rangers’ goalie, Henrik Lundqvist, remained lucky for most of the match, making some exceptionally well saves that could have cost Rangers the match early on.
It could have been the help of some supernatural powers that created a force field around Lundqvist who blocked the puck from going in a number of times. He blocked a total of 31 of 33 attempts while rookie home goalie, Michal Neuvirth, had a near shutout
making 24 of 25 saves.
The fun part about playoffs is the extended overtime periods, which are 20 minutes long and continue until one team has scored, compared to the five-minute regulation OT.
New York took a chance and capitalised during the opening two minutes of the final period.
Matt Gilroy fired off a one timer from a pass by Wojtek Wolski. After remaining scoreless for over 40 minutes, it seemed like the match had ended after Gilroy took the lead for Rangers.
The number-one seed of the Eastern Conference was finally relieved and thrilled when its captain, Alex Ovechkin, took control of a loose puck and tied up the game with less than seven minutes to go in the final period.
Ovechkin knew he had to do something to let Washington make some progress for once after facing a number of disappointing post-seasons.
Alexander Semin, now better known as the playoff ghost, scored his first post-season goal in overtime with a little over 90 seconds remaining to win the match.
It really disappointed Marc Staal who almost blocked Semin’s game winning shot.
"Obviously anytime you lose in overtime you feel like it got away because all you have to do is get one goal and you win the game", Staal said. "It's disappointing. It's the playoffs, so we'll come back and try to win the next one".
Capitals’ coach, Bruce Boudreau, termed Semin’s playoff leadership key to Washington winning games in the post-season.
"We're not getting anywhere without Alex Semin scoring", Boudreau said. "We need him to go and create that other offensive threat".
Washington has vowed to make these play-offs different from previous seasons, losing in the quarterfinals last time to eighth placed Montreal Canadiens which really hurt its reputation in front of its fans.
Game 2 takes place on Friday night again in Washington.
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