Capitals close out Flyers in 6; Penguins await

The Washington Capitals are breathing a sigh of relief as they prevented a Game 7 and wrapped up their series with a 1-0 win over the Philadelphia Flyers in Game 6 Sunday. It wasn’t an easy series to close out, but now the Presidents’ Trophy winners have set a date with Pennsylvania’s other hockey team, the Pittsburgh Penguins.

A few hours after the Capitals advanced, the Dallas Stars joined the Caps in the second round with a 5-4 victory over the Minnesota Wild in one of the craziest games you’ll ever see. They now await the winner of Game 7 between the Chicago Blackhawks and St. Louis Blues.

Finally, the last game of the night needed double-overtime to be decided. In the end, it was John Tavares lifting the New York Islanders to victory on home ice, dispatching the Atlantic Division champion Florida Panthers in six games.

Here are some key takeaways from the day’s three series-clinching wins:

Braden Holtby and Michal Neuvirth were the top performers in Game 6. (USATSI)

1. Braden Holtby just barely outdueled his former tandem mate: Michal Neuvirth was so, so good in the three games he played in this series, but in Game 6, Braden Holtby was just a little better, especially late in the game when Philadelphia was pressing for the equalizer. Neuvirth made 28 saves, while allowing one goal. Holtby made 26 stops.

These two were former teammates, both with the Capitals and with the Hersehy Bears where they won the Calder Cup together. Holtby was essentially Neuvirth’s backup back then. Things have changed a lot in the years since, but these two put on an absolute show over the last three games of the series.

There’s a lot of respect between these two players.

2. John Tavares gives Islanders first series win since 1993: John Tavares was 2 years old the last time the New York Islanders won a playoff series. He scored both goals in a 2-1 double-overtime win over the Florida Panthers to end the 23-year drought. The first came with just 53.2 seconds remaining in regulation to tie the game – amid controversy – then won it for the Isles on a sensational wraparound.

John Tavares IS Captain Clutch. #StanleyCuphttps://t.co/sKMZzymhJv

— #StanleyCup Playoffs (@NHL) April 25, 2016

The captain was an absolute monster in this series. He had five goals and had nine points over the six games. It seemed like every time he was on the ice, he was a difference maker.

Now the Islanders will move on to meet the Tampa Bay Lightning, who will be well rested as they await their second-round opponent.

3. The Wild very nearly pulled off one of the greatest comebacks in hockey history: The Minnesota Wild were dead going into the third period. Everyone was throwing dirt on them. After all, only one team has ever erased a four-goal deficit going into the third period and that was labeled as a miracle (on Manchester).

But the Wild almost did it. First off, they cut the 4-0 deficit to 4-3 in the third period with an unbelievable five-minute stretch of play. The first two in that three-goal run by the Wild were the fastest back-to-back goals in team history.

Then Devan Dubnyk gave up a really strange goal (more on that in a minute) before Jason Pominville kept hope alive when he made it 5-4.

With 35 seconds remaining in regulation, the Wild came literally centimeters away from probably sending this to overtime in a net-front scramble. Stars defenseman Jason Demers nearly knocked the puck into his own net, but Kari Lehtonen‘s pad got just enough of it to keep it from fully crossing the line.

Here’s how close they came to completing one of the craziest comebacks in Stanley Cup Playoffs history:

Unbelievable. By the way, those new cross bar cameras sure came in handy for this one.

The Stars hung on to win the game 5-4 and end the series. It’s the first playoff series Dallas has won since 2008.

4. The Capitals had to do something special to beat Neuvirth: Michal Neuvirth’s insane performance in this series made life difficult for one of the league’s best scoring teams. They had multiple chances, but they really couldn’t figure out their former teammate.

That was until Washington made about as perfect a play as they could have to end their scoring drought in Game 6. It was Alex Ovechkin to Marcus Johansson to Nicklas Backstrom for the game’s only goal.

Ovi – Johansson – Backstrom – Shelf@washcaps lead#WSHvsPHI #StanleyCuphttps://t.co/pkotsivWmj

— #StanleyCup Playoffs (@NHL) April 24, 2016

5. About that controversy in Islanders-Panthers Game 6: Florida Panthers fans are going to be sour about the result in this game knowing that their favorite team was so close to the win. Vincent Trocheck and Reilly Smith, while trying to get the Panthers an empty-net goal were both tripped down. Neither play was penalized. The Smith one was a little closer to the borderline, but the Trocheck trip was a no-doubter. If either one of those get called, the Panthers go on the power play and likely win the game.

We always hear about how referees don’t want to decide games with penalties, and it has been definitively proven that the standard of officiating drastically lowers in the postseason and in close games.

Penalties are part of the game, too. The referees exist to call them. Swallowing the whistles is just as much a part of the outcome as calling a penalty in a key situation.

Should we be surprised that those weren’t called? No. That doesn’t make it right. Our Adam Gretz has more on the play here.

6. The eventual Stars game-winning goal was exceptionally weird: We’ve had some wacky goals in the playoffs this year, but the one that ended up costing the Wild their season is going to give Steve Mason‘s 100-foot goal a run for its money in level of insanity.

It all started with the Stars winning an offensive zone faceoff. Defenseman Alex Goligoski was just trying to get a puck to the net when it caught a deflection. It appears that Devan Dubnyk thought the play was over at that point, as if the puck had deflected up and out of play. It didn’t. It actually deflected right into his feet and then… oh no.

The Wild’s season ended thanks in part to a spectacularly weird own goal.

7. Roberto Luongo deserved better in Game 6: The Florida Panthers netminder, originally drafted by the Islanders fourth overall in 1997, was sensational in Game 6. He did everything in his power to extend this series and was 53.2 seconds away from doing just that. An unfortunate bounce for him, with a puck he thought he had slipping out from under him right onto the waiting stick of Tavares, is what got the game in overtime.

The 37-year-old goalie made 49 saves and battled hard the whole way, especially when facing onslaughts in the third period and overtime. The Panthers just couldn’t score enough for him.

8. Thomas Greiss was unbelievable for the Islanders: The New York Islanders have to give a whole bunch of pad taps to Thomas Greiss who battled a lot himself. He made 41 saves in this game and finished the series with a sparkling .944 save percentage.

Prior to this series, Greiss had only appeared in one playoff game and it was in mop-up duty. He was the big question mark coming into the series and he answered by playing the best hockey of his career. Even if Jaroslav Halak is healthy soon, Greiss has to be the guy. He earned a shot at Tampa.

9. The Stars can never be comfortable: The Dallas Stars are moving on and all of the questions the Stars faced coming into the playoffs are still big questions.

Neither goalie distinguished himself as the No. 1. Kari Lehtonen started Games 1-3. Antti Niemi started Games 4 and 5. Then it was Lehtonen again in Game 6. Who will start Game 1 in Round 2? It’s a serious conversation that has to be had.

Games 5 and 6 also brought about more concerns regarding the team’s ability to hold leads. They can score at will, but if they can’t seem to stop the other team from doing so.

Minnesota is not a good offensive team. They didn’t even have their best offensive player in the lineup. They scored four or more goals in three of the six games in this series. How’s that going to go against the St. Louis Blues or Chicago Blackhawks?

The Stars can still win that series and in all honesty, they shouldn’t change the way they’ve played. They have guys that can score at will, like Jamie Benn, who scored on absolute snipe for the Stars’ fourth goal.

Three points today.
Ten points in the series.
A ridiculous shot.
Jamie Benn.#StanleyCuphttps://t.co/fFLAVwE82w

— #StanleyCup Playoffs (@NHL) April 24, 2016

The problem is, they can give up goals just as quickly as they can score them. It’s part of what makes them so fun to watch, but you just never know when they might collapse. They were less than an inch away from getting burned in Game 6.

10. Flyers didn’t take advantage of a gifted 5-on-3 power play: The officiating in this game was, flatly, not good. There were multiple questionable calls, but the biggest of them all came during a stretch where the Flyers ended up getting a prolonged 5-on-3 power play after not one, but two calls that shouldn’t have been made.

The first was a high-sticking penalty against Nicklas Backstrom. He actually got four minutes because Flyers forward Ryan White was left bloodied when a stick came up and hit him in the nose. Only the stick in question belonged to teammate Chris VandeVelde and not Bakcstrom’s.

Then five seconds into that power play, Matt Niskanen was called for hooking against Wayne Simmonds, but it’s really, really hard to find the hook.

However, with that golden opportunity, the Flyers did absolutely nothing with it. They generated very little despite the two-man advantage. Then after the Niskanen penalty was over, they still had time on the double-minor to Backstrom. Then the referees struck again, whistling Ryan White for holding Niskanen’s stick. Again, it was bordlerine at best.

Either way, the Flyers were handed a gift and did nothing with it. It’s hard to win when you can’t take what you’re given.

11. Flyers’ stars were mostly shut out in this series: Something that is sure to be remembered about this series is the lack of scoring from Philadelphia. The Flyers scored six goals in the entire series. None of those came off the stick of Claude Giroux, Wayne Simmonds or Brayden Schenn, the team’s three leading goal scorers during the regular season.

Those guys did a lot to get the Flyers to this point, especially Simmonds who scored a ton of clutch goals, but they just couldn’t find the net in this one. Frustration definitely set in, as Simmonds can attest:

Jakub Voracek and rising star Shayne Gostisbehere did each put one in the net, but the Flyers not getting the production they needed out of the top of their lineup was a big reason their season ended.

12. Capitals-Penguins is going to be awesome theater: The first second-round matchup to be set in stone is one that could go down as the very best of the bunch. The Capitals will meet the Pittsburgh Penguins in Round 2 for yet another postseason sampling of Alex Ovechkin vs. Sidney Crosby. That’s a matchup made in TV ratings heaven and should draw a lot of eyeballs from even the most casual fans. It should also be a wildly entertaining series between two of the league’s best teams.

After Pittsburgh easily dispatched the New York Rangers in five games, they’ll face a much tougher test in Washington. This will be the first time the two have met since the 2009 Stanley Cup Playoffs when the Penguins sent the Capitals home in an intense seven-game series on the way to winning the Cup.

Adam Gretz has more on this highly-anticipated matchup here.

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