Capitalists!

In my last report I stated that the seeds are there for a Ranger upset of the Caps. Yesterday the Rangers nurtured those seeds with some timely scoring, great goaltending and lots of grit in a 4-3 win over the Caps before a stunned crowd at the Verizon Center. It was only the third time in the past fifteen playoff series that the Rangers have won the opening game. Henrik Lundqvist with 32 saves was the star of the night, but he had a lot of company, a lot of company. On the other side the Rangers scored four goals on twenty one shots against Jose Theodore, who was no match for Lundqvist, but in all fairness to Theodore his defense was less than stellar.

Meanwhile the Great Ovechkin was 'held' to just two assists, if you want to call 13 shots on goal, 10 blocked shots, and 5 missed shots being held. He also dished out 6 hits in over 26 minutes of ice time. He was without a doubt the most overpowering presence on the ice. To the Rangers credit they stayed with him most of the night. And surprise of all surprises it was the veteran duo of Rozsival and Redden who did most of the work against him, especially in the third period when he was 'held' to just three shots on goal.

The Rangers outhit the Caps 35-27 with Ryan Callahan leading the pack with 7 hits. Colton Orr who played a little over 3 minutes dished out 3 hits and made a couple of key defensive plays. The young kiddies, Korpikoski, Callahan and Dubinsky were fearless with Dubinsky scoring the winning goal after faking defenseman Schultz out of his skates. Sean Avery was, well, Sean Avery. His highlight was checking Mike Green into the Ranger bench in the third period. It was a highlight performance by the Rangers and it has to be duplicated every night as this is one tough team with a lot of firepower.

How do you stop this firepower? Henrik Lundqvist. He must be even better than he was last night and he has to be if the Rangers want to win this series. But let's enjoy and savor this one and relish in the thought that for now, after one game, the Rangers have taken away the home ice advantage from the Caps in what is shaping up as a long hard series.

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