The fourth match of the “Florida” – “Washington” series ended very unpleasantly for the team of Alexander Ovechkin. He was two minutes away from a win that would put the best team of the regular season on the brink of elimination, but first let the Panthers go into overtime and then quickly gave up in overtime. As a result, he caught the score – 2-2 in the match. It seems that now the psychological advantage will go to the club from the sunny situation and it will be very difficult for the Capitals to stop the opponent who believes in him.
But the Ovechkin gang in this playoff has repeatedly pleasantly surprised, and they did it again in the first half of the fifth game.
TJ Oshie did the same trick in the third game in a row (!) – scoring with a penny correction.
Alexander Ovechkin continued the series that was most unexpected for him – it was marked by assists in the first four meetings of the Stanley Cup draw and did not change the tradition from Wednesday to Thursday.
And when Evgeny Kuznetsov and Oshi noticed the “2 in 1” debut, I thought it was done: “Washington” made another sensation and was on his way home to buy tickets to the conference semifinals. But at that moment a real disaster happened for Ovechkin and his associates. Throughout the 21/22 regular season, Florida has repeatedly proven that there are no hopeless situations, earning unofficial “comeback king” status. Now the Panthers have turned their favorite tricks into the playoffs.
You can scold the field players of the guests, who repeatedly start to miss the crushing counterattacks of the President’s Cup holder. You can ask questions to goalkeeper Ilya Samsonov, whose offense was obvious with only one goal, but crucial – while the Capitals still held a minimal advantage, he could not repair the puck, which stood on the penny without its owner. But all this won’t cancel what happened – the show’s favorite first turned 0:3 to 3:3 in 8 minutes,
and then finished “Washington” with two more rapid attacks in the third twenty minutes.
3-5 losses in a match that was under the control of Alexander Ovechkin’s team for a long time can be a very painful blow for them. Now Florida seems to be the undisputed favorite of this series, not only on paper but in practice. I can’t believe it in another “Washington” success after the fifth game.
