WASHINGTON -- The Washington Capitals hit the rewind button and played Friday night's game at the Verizon Center like it was the regular season.
Chalk up another win for the Southeast Division champs -- enough to give them at least two more days of life in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Facing elimination, the Capitals played their best game of the series against the New York Rangers for a 4-0 victory. They chased a player they've been calling "The Difference," goaltender Henrik Lundqvist, after just 40 minutes and 14 shots on goal -- and also got a second shutout from their 20-year-old rookie goalie, Simeon Varlamov.
Game 6, another elimination game for the Capitals, is Sunday afternoon back at Madison Square Garden. If the Caps win, Game 7 will be back at the Verizon Center on Tuesday night.
"That's our goal," Alex Ovechkin said of coming back home for an all-or-nothing Game 7. "We never give up. We fight and we love this situation. It's hard, but we love it."
For the first time all series, the Capitals actually managed to get to Lundqvist -- despite taking a series-low 21 shots. Matt Bradley, the third-line right wing who scored the game's first two goals, beat Lundqvist on a shorthanded breakaway 4:58 into the first period.
However, it was his second goal that showed the Caps that, yes, Lundqvist is human, too.
Bradley shot the puck from about a foot above the goal line and roughly 25 feet off the left post. Lundqvist tried to stand up and make the save by covering his five-hole, but he couldn't do it and the puck somehow popped through his pads at 12:07.
Lundqvist, who looked back into his net in disbelief as the sirens went off and the lights flashed, called it a "brutal goal" and said it was "just a bad decision" to stand up instead of going down on one knee.
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