The Verizon Center exploded as Nicklas Backstrom, Alex Ovechkin and Mike Knuble celebrate
Backstrom’s winning goal, which capped an incredible comeback to keep the Caps from falling into a
2-0 hole against Montreal. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

During a second period Saturday that Nicklas Backstrom called “embarrassing,” the Washington Capitals found themselves down 4-1 against the Montreal Canadiens and waiting for a referee review of an earlier play. Eric Fehr, who had the only Capitals goal at that point, said after the dramatic win that it was the moment when the game changed for his team.

“Our team was on the bench, we were kind of all focusing — nobody was saying anything,” Fehr said. “You could see it in all the players’ eyes that we were ready to go and regroup.”

You can pick any of the Capitals’ goals in their 6-5 overtime win in Game 2 and make a story out of it. There was Fehr’s goal in the first, which brought life back into the Caps after they fell 2-0 down only 7:58 into the game and Caps head coach Bruce Boudreau pulled goalie Jose Theodore for Semyon Varlamov.

Then was also Alexander Ovechkin, held pointless in Game 1, who flashed a smile bigger than Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman when his gritty play by the net got the first of the Caps’ three goals in the third period.

“I like to shoot the puck, but they play so tight on me,” said Ovechkin. “I don’t have lots of time and space to shoot, so I just decide just go to the net and find some rebounds.”

He also had some pretty entertaining comments in response to his 8 hits, which were a game high (the next closest player, Montreal’s Jaroslav Spacek, had 5). Another reporter asked if his early hits were part of his new strategy.

“Strategy? [To] destroy people? No,” said Ovechkin to laughter from the media.

“My job [is] to score goals. And if I have a chance to hit somebody, I’m going to hit them. It was good mentally for me when it was [Montreal defenseman Marc-Andre] Bergeron, my first hit, and, you know, he’s not that strong [of a] guy. It was mentally good for me.”