Ovechkin's Trick Tops Crosby's, Pens

WASHINGTON -- For those of you who are tired of all they hype around the Alex Ovechkin-Sidney Crosby clash in the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, I have bad news.

You better get ready for more. A whole lot more.

In a duel that evoked memories of the titanic struggles between Larry Bird and Magic Johnson in the NBA playoffs back in the 1980s, Crosby and Ovechkin answered each other all night long, goal for goal, until each player had a hat trick of his own.

But while both superstars sought to carry their teammates on their backs, it was Ovechkin who got the extra help he needed from rookie goalie Simeon Varlamov and third-line center Dave Steckel that made the difference in a 4-3 Washington win.

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The Caps, who just 11 days ago were staring down the barrel of a 2-0 series deficit against the Rangers, now have a 2-0 series lead of their own as the scene shifts to Pittsburgh for Game 3 Wednesday night.

As it turned out, Game 2 started out with something in common with Game 1: Crosby scored the opening goal. At 5:28 of the first period, Pittsburgh's Brooks Orpik and Washington's Alexander Semin got tangled up in the Penguins zone along the right wing boards. Though they traded a couple of shoves, Semin came out of the tangle with a pair of minors for roughing and high-sticking while Orpik got just two for roughing as Pittsburgh went to the power play.

With 50 seconds left in the man advantage, Crosby claimed some space down low in front of the Washington crease, and nobody on the Capitals seemed prepared to run him off. When you go to the net and battle, good things happen, and when a rebound landed at Crosby's skates he was in perfect position to tap a rebound past Varlamov to give Pittsburgh a 1-0 lead, one they would hold until early in the second period.

Earlier in the day, Washington's Matt Bradley told reporters that his team's game plan was easy: just get the puck to one of the Russians on the team and something good is bound to happen. It was then that one of Washington's Russian trios hooked up to tie the game.

This time, the play started with defenseman Milan Jurcina chipping the puck up the right wing boards where Sergei Fedorov picked up the puck just outside the Washington defensive zone. He streaked up right wing, broke over center ice and into the Pittsburgh zone where he found Viktor Kozlov heading toward the net on the right wing side of the slot. He passed the puck to Ovechkin skating in on the left wing and he beat Marc-Andre Fleury with a shot just inside the far post to tie the game.

But a little more than eight minutes later, Crosby answered again, this time at even strength, when Chris Kunitz shuffled a pass across the crease to Crosby that Washington's Mike Green couldn't get a stick on. Once again, Crosby tapped in the puck and the Penguins had a 2-1 lead.

But less than four minutes later, Washington answere, this time courtesy of a couple of players with considerably lower profiles than Crosby and Ovechkin. Defenseman Tyler Sloan, who was recalled from Hershey of the AHL earlier in the day to step in for an injured John Erskine, let loose with a wrist shot from the top of the slot just inside the Pittsburgh blue line. Fleury made the save, but Steckel, who had staked out some real estate of his own down low, jumped on the rebound and put the puck past Fleury to tie the game 2-2 at the end of two periods.

The goal was Steckel's second of the series, and his play, along with that of linemates Matt Bradley and Brooks Laich, is providing Washington with some unexpected energy. "They're two easy guys to play with," said Laich, who has comfortably settled into a role where he's become one of the team's leading spokesmen. "They're north-south guys, and I try and incorporate my game into theirs and we've been getting a couple of breaks too. It's nice that we're contributing and getting timely goals."

It was in the third period that the league's reigning MVP almost blew the roof off the joint. With Evgeni Malkin in the box for tripping Steckel -- a bad penalty if there ever was one -- Nicklas Backstrom won a faceoff in the right wing circle back to defenseman Mike Green. The defenseman took the puck on his forehand and slid the puck across the zone to the opposite wing, where Ovechkin was waiting to one-time a slap shot past Fleury just four seconds into the power play -- a sequence that seemed to leave Pittsburgh dumbfounded.

"Like all the time, it's like 50-50 [that Ovechkin puts that shot in] because he's been scoring in the same situation so many times," Backstrom said. "He has such a good shot. He's kind of unique."

Let it never be said that Backstrom doesn't have a gift for understatement.

At 15:22, Ovechkin did it again. This time, Kozlov chipped the puck out of a tangle along the right wing boards to Ovechkin at center ice. The pass sprung Ovechkin on a one-on-one break against former Caps defenseman Sergei Gonchar. Try as he might, Gonchar simply couldn't handle Ovechkin all alone, backing up into the zone and giving his fellow Russian all the room that he needed to launch a wrist shot that beat Fleury to the glove side for a 4-2 Washington lead with less than five minutes to go.



The goal gave Ovechkin the first playoff hat trick of his career, and marked the first time a Washington Capitals player posted a playoff hat trick since Al Iafrate had one against the Islanders in 1993. The home crowd showed its appreciation by littering the ice with so many hats, the ensuing faceoff had to be delayed several minutes in order to clear the ice.

But the Penguins, and Crosby in particular, still weren't done. Inside of the last two minutes, Jurcina was sent off for cross checking, giving the Penguins one last chance to get back into the game. Pittsburgh head coach Dan Bylsma pulled the goalie, and the gamble paid off with just 41 seconds to go. Parked along the goal line on the right wing side, Crosby took a pass from Malkin from behind the net before taking five consecutive hacks at the puck. On his fifth and final swing, Crosby batted the puck out of the air and past Varlamov to cut the lead to 4-3.

But that's where the comeback would end, and perhaps we should all be thankful as I'm not sure the crowd could have handled any more stress in just one evening. Said Crosby after the game: "I'm sure it's entertaining for people to watch. If I were to look at it from a fan's point of view, obviously that would be the case. As a player, seeing a guy like him get a hat trick is not a good sign."

"Sick game," said a happy Ovechkin afterwards. "Three goals by me and him. If I was a Capitals fan, I'd be really happy right now ... I think it's good for fans to see great players play against each other and two great teams play against each other. It's unbelievable when we play against great players and you win a game like this."

"The whole team fought. It's not about me and him, it's about the whole team," Ovechkin said.

While Ovechkin's dead right on that -- rookie Simeon Varlamov put in yet another solid performance that prevented the Penguins from stretching either of their leads -- you could excuse the rest of the world on the outside looking in if it begs to differ.