Varly Stands on Head To Give Caps A 6-3 Win
By Rodger M. Wood
The pressure put on 21 year old Caps goalie Semyon Varlamov the first two periods of Game 4 tonight at Montreal was ferocious, but the young net minder, performing magic in the nets, was up to the test.Alex Ovechkin opened up the scoring with a power play goal midway through the first period, but only a minute later the Canadiens tied the score up 1-1 to end the first period.Montreal opened up the second period scoring and held a 2-1 lead until the last 30 seconds of the period when Boyd Gordon and Mike Knuble teamed up for a short handed goal to tie the score 2-2 at intermission, and seemingly take the starch out of the Canadiens and their 22,000 fans at the Bell Center.Helped by the stellar play of defensemen Tom Poti, Jeff Schulz, John Carlson, Varlamov stopped 31 shots the first two periods to keep the Capitals in the game.
Midway through a nail biting third period, Alex O. put the Caps ahead 3-2 with his second goal of the night and Jason Chimera followed up shortly afterwards to give the Caps a two goal advantage.In the last two and a half minutes of the game, Knuble and Backstrom scored empty netters, while Montreal scored its third goal to make the final score 6-3.It wasn’t a pretty win. The Canadiens were desperate for a win, outplayed our Caps much of the game and deserved better results, but I’ll take the ugly win and hope for a prettier one Friday at home.The series now stands at 3 games to 1 for the Capitals, who can end the best 4 of 7 series Friday with a win.
