WASHINGTON — It was an early end that was long overdue. Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals are on to the second round of the playoffs, and they advanced without needing the full seven games.
With fans emphatically declaring that “We are louder” than those at New York’s Madison Square Garden, the Verizon Center exhorted the Capitals to a Game 5 clincher Saturday, a 3-1 win over the Rangers.
Mike Green scored a first-period, power-play goal before taking yet another blow to the head, Ovechkin scored one of his highlight-reel goals in the second, and Alexander Semin tallied in the third. Michal Neuvirth made 26 saves and had a shutout until the final minute as the top-seeded Capitals allowed only eight goals in the series — two in three home wins.
The Capitals are moving on to the Eastern Conference semifinals, having won the first playoff series under Bruce Boudreau that didn’t go the distance. He had led Washington through four seven-game series — winning only one — since becoming coach in 2007.
The Capitals hadn’t won a series in fewer than seven games since 1998, when they beat Buffalo 4-2 on the way to their only appearance in the Stanley Cup finals. Their last loss in fewer than seven was to Tampa Bay in 2003.
While the players were intent on proving they can finish off an opponent, the fans were determined to win the shouting match with their New York counterparts. Rangers fans serenaded Boudreau with, “Can you hear us?” in Game 4 after he said the fans were louder in the nation’s capital.
“Can you hear us?” goes without saying in the always sold out din located in the city’s Chinese quarter, so the Capitals fans alternated “Let’s go Caps” with “We are louder” and held up signs such as “No MSG in our Chinatown.”
Capitals owner Ted Leonsis’ production crew does videos well, and the one shown before the opening faceoff featured “Friday the 13th” footage and the words “April 20th: Game IV — Jason Takes Manhattan,” a reference to Jason Chimera’s winning goal in double overtime of Game 4 in New York on Wednesday.
Wojtek Wolski scored in the waning seconds for the Rangers, who ended a season in which they barely made the playoffs as the No. 8 seed. New York’s offense was hardly one to be feared, and it was further depleted by the absence of second-leading scorer Ryan Callahan, who broke a leg in the final week of the regular season.
Game 5 was the genesis of the Capitals’ downfall a year ago, when they allowed two quick goals on the way to blowing a 3-1 series lead and an eventual first-round elimination by the Montreal Canadiens.
There would be no slow start in this game: Washington dominated the first period, putting constant pressure on goalie Henrik Lundqvist and outshooting the Rangers 13-6, not counting 13 more shots that were blocked.
The onslaught produced the first first-period goal of the series, a power-play score that came when Green came to the side of the crease to poke in a rebound that deflected off Rangers defenseman Dan Girardi and into the net. Instead of a celebration, there was a melee: New York’s Brandon Dubinsky shoved Brooks Laich into the crossbar, starting a six-player scuffle that resulted in four roughing penalties and a Rangers bench minor that gave Washington yet another power play.
Green missed 26 of the last 28 games of the regular season with a concussion after taking a shot off the head on Feb. 6 and elbow to the head from New York’s Derek Stepan on Feb. 25. Green went down again in a scary moment Saturday, when he was hit flush on the helmet by a shot from Rangers defenseman Matt Gilroy.
Small pieces of Green’s helmet went flying as he lay on the ice. He went to the locker room under his own power and later skated during a timeout but didn’t play again.
Ovechkin doubled the lead in the second period, taking a lead pass from Scott Hannan and using his speed to race past defenseman Marc Staal and beat Lundqvist at the far post. It was Ovechkin’s third goal of the series.
Semin left no doubt of the outcome with his goal in the third — also his third of the series — when he took Marcus Johansson’s pass and scored on a 2-on-1 break.
Notes: Capitals RW Mike Knuble missed his second straight game. The Capitals haven’t disclosed his injury, but he was struck on his right hand by a shot in Game 3. … The four straight scoreless first periods tied an NHL playoff record. It had been done twice before — Anaheim vs. New Jersey in 2005 and New York Rangers vs. Montreal Maroons in 1928. … The home team won four of the five games, bucking a league-wide trend in which the visiting team took 22 of the first 37 games in this year’s playoffs.