It's only fitting, of course.
The league wanted to see it.
The national media wanted to see it.
NHL fans everywhere wanted to see it.
Consider the genie-rubbing complete, because after last night's 5-4 overtime victory by the Washington Capitals over the Pittsburgh Penguins in game 6 of this Eastern Conference Quarterfinal, it's time to write the final chapter of one of the best playoff series' the league has seen played out in decades.
Generally speaking, this series has been as even as can be. The Penguins have probably had the better of the play overall, but if you look at most of the numbers after 6 games, the tale of the tape is pretty comparable.
The Penguins have scored 21 goals; Washington 20.
Every game but one has been decided by 1 goal.
There have been 3 overtime games.
And, of course, the most even statistic: Each team has won 3 times.
That's why they play 7 folks.
The story last night was the scoring the Capitals finally got from their support players. Alexander Ovechkin didn't score, but 4 of his teammates did, including a few who hadn't shown up in this series.
But they didn't get going until after the Penguins built a 1-0 lead on a goal by RW Bill Guerin about 5 minutes into the game that had the Mellon Arena crowd in a frenzy.
Guerin broke in with Sidney Crosby on a 2-on-1, took a pass across his body from The Kid, waited just a second, and wristed the puck by Washington netminder Simeon Varlamov on the far side from about 30 feet.
In the second period, Crosby blocked a shot with his right foot that left him hobbling and going to the bench just as the Capitals broke into the Penguins' zone 4-on-2. LW Alexander Ovechkin passed the puck to RW Victor Kozlov, who roofed a top shelfer past the glove of Pens' goalie Marc-Andre Fleury to get his first goal of the series and tie the score at the 6 and 1/2 minute mark.
The game stayed tied at 1 until Tomas Fleischmann picked up a rebound untouched to Fleury's left and managed to steer it across the line with about 5 minutes left in the 2nd frame to give Washington a 2-1 lead.
The score looked like it would stay that way going into the 3rd until the Penguins' secret weapon in the playoffs so far, defenseman Mark Eaton, pinched in the Washington zone, took a puck in the slot and calmly threw it by Varlamov in the five-hole to tie the score on the power play with 30 seconds left in the frame.
The goal was Eaton's 4th of the playoffs, after having only 4 in the regular season.
The Penguins took that momentum into the 3rd period and again scored on the man-advantage about 5 minutes in when defenseman Alex Goligoski ripped a shot from the near point that went pretty wide, only to have it carom out from the far boards directly to his partner Kris Letang. With the Capitals' collapsing around their goaltender, Letang buried one high over Varlamov's glove hand from about 40 feet to give the Penguins the lead again, 3-2.
Not to be outdone, the Capitals stormed back.
Just a minute later, on a power play of their own, center Alexander Semin took a relatively bad angle shot from close to the near boards that went in off Washington forward Brooks Laich, who was screening Fleury right in front, to tie the score.
It also was Laich's first goal of the series.
Then, 30 seconds later, on a rush into the zone, Kozlov took a shot from the right circle that went off the boards behind Fleury. However, because Fleury had come out to challenge Kozlov, he was a little out of position. Kozlov swooped behind the net and came out wide while #29 tried to get back to the far post.
The problem was that Hal Gill, defending on the play, tried to cut Kozlov off at the pass by going behind Fleury. They collided and that left half the net open. Kozlov shot it from a bad angle, but with the cage empty, it found the back of the twine for a quick, momentum shifting 4-3 Capitals' lead.
Not to be outdone, the relentless Crosby tied it for the Penguins with about 4 minutes left in the game when he swooped out from behind the goal just as defenseman Brooks Orpik was shooting the puck from the point. Crosby knocked Orpik's shot out of the air before it got to Varlamov, and before the Washington defense could realize what was happening. Sid then deposited it behind the russian rookie goaltender on the 3rd whack.
That set up overtime when the Penguin killer, David Steckel, won another faceoff, went to the net, and deflected Laich's point shot beneath Fleury's glove to give Washington its first overtime victory in 3 tries in this series and send this clash of the titans to a winner-take-all 7th game.
The loss was Marc-Andre Fleury's first career loss in post-season overtimes. He is now 5-1.
Last night's victory for the Capitals was also the first time the Penguins have failed to eliminate Washington from a playoff series when they had the chance. As I pointed out yesterday, they were 6-0 in such games before last night.
Last night's win also was the Capitals' first playoff overtime victory in their last 7 such chances, and only the Penguins' second overtime setback in their last 10 playoff OT contests.
The Penguins had a chance to put this game away early. They outshot Washington by a whopping 18-5 tally in the first period, but Varlamov again kept the Capitals in the game and gave them a chance.
The final shot total was 42-24, in favor of Pittsburgh.
Another big storyline of the game was the Penguin power play.
Sure, the man-advantage went 2-for-5 last night, but the game might be remembered more for the power play goals the Penguins didn't get when it might have mattered most.
The first of those moments happened in the first period when the Penguins had a 5-on-3 advantage for 1 minute, but couldn't put anything behind Varlamov.
The second moment happened in the final 2 minutes of regulation with the score tied when the Penguins were awarded a power play after Laich slashed Pens' LW Chris Kuntiz' stick out of his hands.
The Penguins had several good opportunities, including a golden one by Goligoski with 12 seconds to go, but couldn't finish.
There's one other reason why the Penguins weren't able to finish off the Capitals last night.
Fleury was again outplayed by Varlamov.
This has been going on most of the series and, even though many people aren't talking about it, it's one of the reasons why there even needs to be a 7th game on Wednesday.
It's not as if the goals Fleury let up last night were bad ones. He did get caught out of position on the 2nd goal by Kozlov, but otherwise, can't be directly blamed.
Still, Fleury isn't the reason why the Penguins have won any of their games in this series. He hasn't stepped up and stolen a game for his team.
You can't say the same about Varlamov. I think most people would agree that he's the main reason why Washington has won at least 1 and perhaps 2 of their games in this series.
And, even though he's responsible for the worst goaltending effort of the series in game 4, you also can point directly at Varlamov for why Washington has even stayed in the other 2 games the Penguins' won.
Pittsburgh has severely outshot Washington in this series and Varlamov is the real reason why the series isn't over yet. Fleury has not matched his play.
The Penguins certainly have shown they can win without getting a stand-out performance from Fleury, but how nice would it be if he were to just step up and slam the door for a game? He owes his teammates that, and he's definitely capable of doing it because Washington doesn't pose any more formidable of an attack than the Philadelphia Flyers did, and Fleury was superb in that series.
If he steps up his play on Wednesday, the Penguins' chances of advancing to the Eastern Conference Final for the 2nd straight season go up dramatically.
So, now we have one game.
One contest for all the marbles in this dream series.
A series that has clearly exceeded all of the hype bestowed upon it.
The Penguins should be ready for game 7. They played another strong game last night overall, their goaltender notwithstanding, and I expect them to bring the same type of play on Wednesday. They know they're doing good things out there. Orpik described his team as incredibly resilient after game 5 and expect to see that on the ice on Wednesday. Pittsburgh is an experienced bunch and has veteran leadership with guys like Guerin and Matt Cooke in the room.
Washington, on the other hand, has veterans like Sergei Federov who have been there before, too, so they won't go easy. And, I as pointed out yesterday, they have a good record in elimination games recently, going 6-1 in their last 7 such games, although it's worth noting that the one game they did lose game on their home ice -- just like Wednesday's game will be -- was against the Flyers last year in, what else? Overtime.
That would be a fitting end to this series, wouldn't it?
Only if the team that has played better in this series prevails, though.
Pittsburgh is that team.
Pregame tomorrow.
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