Crazy Rebel(l)s
Thema drucken
21.12.2018 04:28
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TAMPA Brett Howden Jersey Womens , Fla. (AP) Alex Ovechkin is thrilled, though hardly satisfied.The Washington Capitals star is headed to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time in his 13-year career, eager to put more distance between the Eastern Conference champions and a lingering perception of Ovechkin and the Caps as playoff underachievers.”Finally we get what we want, be in the Stanley Cup Final,” the 32-year-old Russian star said. ”There’s still a lot of hockey to play.”Ovechkin scored just over a minute into Washington’s 4-0 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference final Wednesday night.Braden Holtby stopped 29 shots to notch his second straight shutout. Andre Burakovsky scored two goals, and Nicklas Backstrom added an empty-netter to help the Capitals close it out.Now, they’ve got to do it again against the expansion Vegas Golden Knights, who are Western Conference champions in their inaugural season.”I feel very happy, but we’re not finished yet,” Ovechkin said. ”We’ve been waiting for this moment a long time.”The Golden Knights breezed through the Western Conference, scoring 43 goals and allowing 27 while going 12-3 to eliminate the Los Angeles Kings, San Jose Sharks and Winnipeg Jets during an improbable run to the Stanley Cup Final.Vegas went 2-0 against the Capitals in the regular season Paul Carey Jersey Womens , winning 3-0 at home on Dec. 23 and 4-3 at Washington on Feb. 4.”It’s a great story. They’re a good hockey team, they have a lot of good players, players from other teams – I know a lot of people say we didn’t want those players, but we all did,” Capitals coach Barry Trotz said.”The rules were the rules. They did a great job, they’ve been galvanized as a group. There’s nothing tighter than that first-year group because there’s no pre-conceived notion. Leadership’s not in place, nobody knows where to live, all those things are galvanizing.”The Golden Knights’ top scorer during the playoffs has been former Lightning forward Jonathan Marchessault with 18 points (eight goals, 10 assists). Alex Tuch is second among league rookies with nine points (six goals, three assists).Goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, who’s in the Stanley Cup Final for the third straight season and fifth time overall, has been a huge part of the team’s success Chris Tierney Jersey Womens , too, with a 1.68 goals-against-average and .947 save percentage.Fleury and teammate James Neal return to the Cup Final after facing each other in the championship round last year – Fleury with the Pittsburgh Penguins, Neal with the Nashville Predators.”They’re deep. They’re probably the most veteran team still playing in the playoffs. But they’ve done a fabulous job,” Trotz said. ”They’re a fabulous story. … It’s a great story, not only for our game, but for everybody.”To reach the Cup Final for the first time since 1998, the Caps beat Tampa Bay three times on the road to run their record to 8-2 away from home this postseason.The Lightning, the NHL’s highest-scoring team during the regular season, didn’t have a goal over the final 159 minutes, 27 seconds of the series.Ryan Callahan had Tampa Bay’s last goal at 33 seconds of the second period in Game 5.”It’s fun. I’m more happy for that group than I am personally,” Trotz said. ”They did it together. Everybody has been in all year. We kept growing on and off the ice.”And shoving aside a decade of playoff frustration.”The playoffs are fun,” Trotz added. ”They got to the next level and realized they’re not going to be defined by anything they’ve done or not done in the past.”—AP Hockey Writer Stephen Whyno contributed to this story.— LOS ANGELES (AP) The goals would not come Tyson Barrie Jersey , the losses mounted and the St. Louis Blues appeared trapped in a spiral.They desperately needed something to turn their season – and playoff hopes – around. They might have found just that in a 7-2 demolishing of the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday.”It took a toll on them, not scoring,” Blues goalie Jake Allen said. ”We needed one of those games. I don’t know when the last time was we had a game like that.”St. Louis, which had lost nine of its last 10 and averaged just 1.4 goals per game in that stretch, picked up goals from seven players to hand the Kings their worst loss of the season.The five-goal margin matched the Blues’ biggest victories of the season.Robert Bortuzzo, Colton Parayko, Alex Pietrangelo, Ivan Barbashev, Vladimir Tarasenko, Kyle Brodziak and Jaden Schwartz scored for the Blues. Allen made 40 saves.”We needed a win,” Blues coach Mike Yeo said. ”Obviously, when you can score some goals Matt Martin Jersey Womens , what you hope is that some guys can build some confidence off that and carry a little momentum into our next one.”The loss left Los Angeles one point back of Colorado for the second Western Conference wild card, and two points ahead of St. Louis. The Kings had not lost by more than four goals all season.”Our fight on the puck was not at a playoff level if you expect to win this time of year,” Kings coach John Stevens said. ”It’s a little concerning. It’s tough hockey this time of year. You see it every night.”Drew Doughty and Dustin Brown scored for the Kings. Jonathan Quick made 29 saves before he was pulled after the second period, Los Angeles already down 4-1. Jack Campbell stopped 14 of 17 shots in the third.”We got what we deserved,” the Kings’ Dion Phaneuf said. ”When you get beat like this, you take it. You stand and look at it, and then you move forward.”St. Louis’ first three goals were scored by defensemen.”Your defense scores goals if your forwards are doing things the right way,” Yeo said. ”We played a really strong game today and it gave us a chance.”The Blues jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period on goals from Bortuzzo and Parayko.The Kings briefly appeared as though they would make it a game when Doughty redirected Anze Kopitar’s pass by Allen, but St. Louis answered with goals off turnovers from Pietrangelo and Barbashev to end the period.”We gift-wrapped it for them,” Stevens said.Stevens changed goalies to start the third, a rare move with someone of Quick’s caliber.But the Blues greeted Campbell with goals from Brodziak and Schwartz within the first minute of the third period, and the rout was on.”We couldn’t check a hat tonight Seth Griffith Jersey Womens ,” Stevens said.Despite the results from the previous 10 games, Yeo said he sensed a big game coming.”I felt good about today’s game,” Yeo said. ”The way we approached yesterday, the focus I saw in our players, I had a good feeling.”Yeo reunited Brayden Schenn, Tarasenko and Schwartz on the first line, a trio that started the season on a tear but hadn’t played together since December.NOTES: Stevens removed F Alex Iafallo from the first line in the second period to the third line. ”You can make your own conclusions on that one,” Stevens said. … Schwartz had two assists to go with his 20th goal. … Brown’s goal with 15 seconds left gave him 20 for the first time since the 2011-12 season.UP NEXTBlues: Remain in Southern California to visit Anaheim on Monday.Kings: Complete a four-game homestand Monday against Vancouver.— |
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