Washington Capitals aim to continue winning against New York Rangers –NHL Playoffs Game 3 Preview
Washington was in the mood to take down New York right from Game 1 but the crowd at the Madison Square Garden definitely might have intimidated them in the opening matchup.
With the barrier of playing on foreign ice broken, Capitals rebounded to level the 2012 National Hockey League (NHL) Stanley Cup Eastern Conference Playoff Semi-Final series against Rangers, 1-1, after a 3-2 victory on Monday, April 30.
Now, as both teams go to the Verizon Center in Washington tied, the Capitals will certainly be looking to turn the tables even further and use their ecstatic home crowd to their advantage.
There has been an issue with the ice time that captain, Alex Ovechkin, is getting nowadays as sometimes head coach, Dale Hunter, decides to play the player longer and other times, he decides to bench the forward. Up until now, Hunter’s decisions have been
working and as long as their winning, the Capitals are content.
"To be honest, it's not even something that we notice," Washington defenseman, Karl Alzner, said. "We don't go down the sheet at the end of the game and say, 'How much did Ovi play?' That's just not something that we do. Talking to some of the guys, we all
keep saying the same thing: 'It's too bad that that's the topic of conversation after we just won a big game.'"
It was Ovechkin’s last period goal on the power play that gave them the win and life in the semi-final series. It also helped them avoid going down by 2-0, which is never an easy situation to get out of.
Brad Richards finally turned out in Game 1 and 2 against Washington and showed that he is willing to take it to the next level. His confidence is soaring and he certainly hopes on continuing with that momentum.
"The first two goals were us beating ourselves," Richards said about Game 2. "Whether it's a fluke or giving an odd-man rush like that, that's the game of mistakes we always talk about. We kept it close in the third.”
Game 3 against Capitals and Rangers is set to begin on Wednesday night, May 2, 2012, at the Verizon Center in Washington at 7:30 PM ET.
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