"He held everything down for us. I thought they got a lot of good looks tonight. That's as well as he has played all year. He's had a lot of big games for us, but he was awesome tonight."- Brooks Orpik
Braden Holtby turned aside 30 Rangers shots last night for his first playoff shut out win in two years, and the second playoff shut out of his career, which came exactly two years ago against the same opponent.
The Capitals played a tight game with an aggressive forecheck that lead to a lucky goal by Jay Beagle. Beagle had a missed opportunity off of a one-timer, but picked up his rebound behind the net and banked the puck off of Rangers defenseman Keith Yandle's skate, which banked off of Lundqvist's skate and into the net.
It was Beagle's first goal of the playoffs, and a great reward for a hard-working player that deserved some credit.
"My goals are never how you draw them up", said Beagle. "It's just a matter of grinding it out and trying to create havoc in front and good things happen. "
"That line was really working hard," Trotz said. "I thought that whole line, Brouwer, Beagle, Burakovsky had a lot of jump, and they were really committed to getting pucks to the net and keeping things alive, and that's how the goal happened." (CSN Washington)
"Puck Luck"was exactly what the Capitals needed, too. Alex Ovechkin was playing out of his mind last night, firing 4 shots on net including a point blank shot that was stopped Lundqvist. The Caps needed a lucky bounce to beat the netminder as the Rangers held the Washington to just 20 shots.
In the final few minutes of the game, the Rangers poured on an attack that brought every fan at Verizon Center, and no doubt in many homes, out of their seats as they cheered on their Caps. Holtby stood tall, snatching pucks out of the air and sweeping the crease with his stick to keep it clear. Washington did a great job of allowing Holtby to see almost everything that came his way as the clock ticked down a frantic assault in the Capitals zone.
"It was obviously a little crazy out there, but I thought we did a great job of controlling our mindset, our game plan," Holtby said. ""We took a couple of icings when we didn't have plays, otherwise we had to take some instead of forcing something. We just played smart. At the end of the day, that is why we won."
The Capitals desperately needed this win to open up their home stand against New York. Game 2 saw the Caps fizzle as they were coming off a great start to the series. The Rangers are definitely showing why they were the regular season champs, and Washington must continue to hold the fort and keep New York from getting as many chances as they have been.
Holtby has been a rock all year and his ability to calm the play down, especially this post-season, has been a reason why the Caps aren't panicking in their own zone. If the Caps and Holtby can continue this into Games 4 and 5, could we finally see Washington advance to the third for the first time in the Ovechkin-era?
We'll see on Wednesday.
Go Caps.
More to come...