WASHINGTON — It’s impossible to say whether the good feeling the Rangers derived from their triple-overtime victory over the Capitals will carry into Saturday, when the teams meet in Washington for Game 4.
But the Capitals don’t seem worried.
Washington trailed Boston 2-1 in games before winning in seven, so they have no reason to believe this loss will be any more difficult to overcome.
“We have confidence in our team,” Washington’s Troy Brouwer said. “We played a real good game, I thought, holding them to one goal, almost, for two whole hockey games. I mean, if we continue playing like we did, creating offense, blocking shots, you know, playing good, patient hockey, we’ll be successful.”
Capitals coach Dale Hunter played in a four-overtime game and now has stood behind the bench over a three-overtime thriller. He lost both games, but neither of them ended a series.
“Well, you go into triple overtime it’s a special game,” Hunter said in the wee hours of Thursday morning. “But it’s just one game and you got to bounce back.”
Rangers forward Marian Gaborik won it with a goal in the 115th minute. The game started at 7:40 p.m. on Wednesday and ended at 12:14 a.m. Thursday.
The defeat conjured memories of Washington’s 3-2 loss to Pittsburgh in 1996, a game that lasted four overtimes.
“Well, you’re pretty drained after,” Hunter said. “I think both teams would be pretty drained, and it’s nice that both teams get two days to recoup. This way, they both get to come back and get two days of rest and you see a better hockey game.”
Capitals associate goalie coach Olie Kolzig was in the net for Washington during that four-overtime affair against Pittsburgh and in the press box at Verizon Center on Wednesday night. As the game developed, he had a hunch a marathon was in the making.
“I actually called it,” he said Thursday. “I said this has got the feeling of a double, triple overtime game. It just felt like a chess match. It wasn’t wide-open hockey; it wasn’t end-to-end chances. So you knew it was just a matter of a bad break or whatever team was going to be mistake-free.”