Rangers 3, Capitals 2: Twenty-two seconds. That’s how close the Capitals were to silencing Madison Square Garden and taking a 3-2 lead in the Eastern Conference semifinal series against the New York Rangers. After holding a 2-1 lead since John Carlson’s power-play goal 4 minutes 20 seconds into the third period, the Capitals had the tables turn on them when Joel Ward was handed a double-minor penalty with just 22 seconds left on the clock. Already the Rangers had pulled goaltender Henrik Lundqvist for an extra defender. Ward’s four-minute punishment gave the Rangers an added boost.
The two-man advantage did the trick. The Rangers tied the game with seven seconds to go in regulation, sending the game into overtime. With Ward still in the box to open the extra frame, the Rangers made nearly as quick work again, when defenseman Marc Staal bounced a slap shot off Brooks Laich’s stick and past Braden Holtby. In a matter of minutes the Capitals, having been seconds away from taking a 3-2 series lead, wound up on the verge of elimination.
“It’s a little mentally disturbing for sure right now,” Ward, talking about going from hero to goat, told the Post after the game. But his teammates rallied around him: “We all lost the game,” Alex Ovechkin told the Post. “We win as a group and lose as a group.”
Game 6 begins Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. back at the Verizon Center.
It’s War: For being a total jerkass on Sunday night when he intentionally drilled Bryce Harper in the back in the 19-year-old’s first plate appearance, Phillies pitcher Cole Hamels was suspended for five games and fined. Through the Post’s Adam Kilgore, Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo has just about declared war on the City of, well, one wouldn’t quite call what Hamels did “Brotherly Love.” Rizzo didn’t mince words when evaluating Hamels’ beanbag: “That’s [fucking] chicken [shit],” he told the Post.
And Thomas Boswell is tossing on the war paint, too. After Sunday night’s incident, Boz says the Phillies should brace themselves for years of “Harper hell.”
