In a series where both teams have struggled on home ice, the Montreal Canadiens continued the trend with a crucial 2-1 victory on Friday night in Washington, cutting the Capitals’ series lead to 3-2 and setting up a huge Game 6 in Montreal on Monday. Jaroslav Halak was terrific in net for the Habs, after Carey Price got the start in Game 4, and the Slovak made 37 saves throughout the night, frustrating the Capitals at just about every turn.
The Capitals’ powerplay continued to struggle, going 0-for-5 on the night, and the league’s top ranked powerplay in the regular season has just one powerplay goal through the first five games of the playoffs. The Canadiens were helped immensely by the fact that they jumped out to an early lead and were able to focus more on keeping the Caps’ offense at bay over the last two periods.
Mike Cammalleri scored his third goal of the playoffs ninety seconds into the game, beating Semyon Varlamov with an off-balance wrister from high in the slot to put the Canadiens up 1-0. Grinder Travis Moen put the Habs up by two just past the 7 minute mark of the first with a nice little play at the hashmarks. The centering pass from Brian Gionta was in Moen’s feet, but he managed to kick it up to his stick and lift a backhand over a sliding Varlamov to give Halak all the offensive cushion he would need.
Alex Ovechkin made things interesting with his 5th goal of the playoffs, finding a loose puck in a scrum in the crease and pushing it through the pile to pul Washington within one and bring the Verizon Center back to life. Halak wasn’t in the mood to give up anymore, as he finished the game with 20 straight saves to keep the Habs alive in the series.
Varlamov’s 26 saves kept the Capitals within striking distance down the stretch, but the team offense that made them so lethal all year long is still waiting to be found, as noted scorers Mike Green, Alex Semin and Tomas Fleischmann have all gone cold, combining for just four points between them so far. If Halak continues to play the way he did in this one, Washington will need better efforts from all their scorers if they don’t want to let this series slip away.