Pittsburgh Penguins Throwback Thursday: Pens Vs. Caps 2009 Conference Semi’s
By Mike Necciai
Last week, we visited game 6 of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers quarterfinals in 2009. That game saw the Pens erase a three goal deficit to eliminate Philly and move to the Eastern Conference semi’s. Their prize? A terrifying Washington Capitals team with Alex Ovechkin playing as dominating as we’ve seen him in his NHL career.
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Though I was young, I remember the playoff runs of the 90’s and how great those teams were. And while the Pittsburgh Penguins have had a multitude of amazingly entertaining playoff series’, I can honestly say that the 2009 Penguins vs. Capitals seven-game series might actually trump them all.
The Pittsburgh Penguins weren’t Stanley Cup favorites in the eyes of many folks outside of Pittsburgh. They were actually eliminated from playoff contention just a few months prior, but turned the season around after making a head coaching change and hiring Dan Bylsma. The Capitals though, were riding the high of a 108-point season that saw them go 50-24-8 while Ovechkin potted 56 goals.
To make things worse, the Pittsburgh Penguins had gone 1-3 against the rival Caps that season with their only win coming in an overtime victory. There was no way they could beat Washington, right?
When the series opened in Game one, the Verizon Center was rocking as you’d expect. I’ll never forget how irritatingly loud their goal horn seemed, and how frustrating it was to see Ovechkin celebrate as he does when he scored his first goal of the series. But, despite losing 3-2 the Pittsburgh Penguins played pretty good.
And then came game two…
It isn’t often you can praise the goaltenders after a total of seven goals are scored. But, both Marc-Andre Fleury and Semyon Varlamov were brilliant. Also, watching Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby exchange dueling hat tricks was magnificent, despite Sid’s third coming a little too late and the Pens falling to a deficit of two games early in the series.
When the series returned to Pittsburgh, most of the Pittsburgh Penguins faithful had little hope of a come back. Battling back from a 2-0 deficit seemed almost impossible against these Capitals. However, as they did in game six against the Flyers in the series prior, they showed how persistent they were and proved that they belonged on the ice with Washington.
The Pens came away with a 3-2 victory in game three, and then defeated the Caps yet again in game four by a score of 5-3. The series returned to Washington for game five, and the Verizon Center had the Capitals’ backs once again. But, it didn’t matter this time, as the Pittsburgh Penguins defeated Washington on their home ice to take a 3-2 series lead heading back to Pittsburgh with a chance to send Ovie and company packing for the summer.
Game five marked the first time in the series that the away team walked away victorious, but the Capitals returned the favor in game six and defeated the Pens 5-4 at Mellon Arena. Over the next two days, you could feel the tension among Pens’ fans in Pittsburgh. With game seven in Washington looming, it was almost as if no one wanted to talk about hockey. Could the Pittsburgh Penguins really beat Washington at home twice in the same series? The Capitals went 29-9-3 at home in the regular season that year, and it was clear that the Pens were playing with fire.
Nearly three minutes into the first period, Ovechkin gets his chance to take control of the game and series.
For a simple breakaway that occurred extremely early in a hockey game, that save had a major impact on this game. You could feel the momentum swing as Fleury robbed Ovie with his glove, Similar to when Rocky cut Ivan Drago for the first time in Rocky IV, you could see that Ovechkin was stunned.
The Pittsburgh Penguins were surprisingly calm and methodical throughout the rest of the game. And, well… You know what happens next.
The flood gates opened, Varlamov was chased from the cage, and even Craig Adams cashed in with a goal. Sidney Crosby’s breakaway to make it 6-1 Pittsburgh was the nail in the coffin, as if it wasn’t sealed enough already and the Pens moved on to to sweep the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Finals.
As I said, this series will live on as one of the all-time greats for the Pens. It had everything you’d want from a star studded matchup like this, and the biggest names in hockey were absolutely brilliant. Crosby and Ovechkin put on a show unlike anything we’ve seen since, and each put their teams on their backs in order to push this series to seven games. Unfortunately for Washington, the Pittsburgh Penguins had one last burst in them to close this out.
Next: Lineup Predictions for the Pens in 2015-16