Things went swimmingly in the sea of red Friday night when Alex Ovechkin dove into the Plexiglas to celebrate his stunning last-gasp goal, but yesterday afternoon the Washington Capitals had no late kick, or early kick, or any kick against the tougher Philadelphia Flyers.

ARTICLE TOOLS

• Printer friendly
• E-mail

Font:

• *
• *
• *
• *

The Flyers, who blew a two-goal lead with 18 minutes left Friday, used their legs and their head to score twice in the first 15 minutes yesterday with R.J. Umberger finishing off a breakaway, then Mike Knuble and Jeff Carter tag-teamed defenceman Mike Green into a bad giveaway as Carter banged in a rebound.

That's all the Flyers needed as goalie Marty Biron rebounded sharply from a questionable effort in the opener (five goals on 27 shots) with a perfect 24-stop game in a 2-0 win that flattered the Caps. Maybe the Caps were due a stinker after eight straight wins, the last seven just to make the playoffs, or maybe the law of averages just said teams don't come back from two-goal deficits often in the playoffs. It's about eight per cent, according to the folks at Elias Sports Bureau.

"It was a pretty humiliating feeling over the last 48 hours," admitted Knuble, after folding in Game 1 when Green had two goals, including the tying blast in the third and Ovechkin stole the puck on the winner with five minutes left.

Humiliating for Philly. Humbling for the Caps, who had their building rocking Friday with about 18,000 fans in red team jerseys. Yesterday, the fans lost their voices early and the Caps lost their first game since March 19 in Chicago.

"I've never believed teams are due a bad game . . . they made us look bad and hopefully it's a cheap lesson. I guess we'll see," said Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau, who'll take his club to Philadelphia today on the train for tomorrow's Game 3. "Outplayed, outworked, out-won in the battles for pucks."

Umberger, who took Patrick Thoresen's spot on the checking line with Mike Richards and Joffrey Lupul which was out continually against Ovechkin, sailed in after the great Braydon Coburn feed.

Edmonton Journal