The Washington Capitals and New York Islanders had turned this game into a best of 3 series after tying the series up 2-2 through the first four games. Both teams were looking to get a victory at the Verizon Center in order to try and take the series and advance into round two.
Well the Islanders were able to jump into the lead in the opening period when Josh Bailey was able to get the puck past Braden Holtby to give the Islanders a 1-0 lead. Unfortunately for the fans from Uniondale, things were quickly going to be heading in a different direction.
Washington simply played more aggressively and took advantage of several Islanders turnovers to dominate the rest of the ice for the final 54 minutes. It started when Evgeny Kuznetsov scored his opening goal of the series just 3 minutes later to tie up the game. He was assisted by Marcus Johansson and Karl Alzner. Alzner actually was able to get the next goal of the game in the second period after they took advantage of their aggressiveness and just punishing Jaroslav Halak with shot after shot. After two periods, not only did the Captials have a 2-1 lead, but they had outshot the Islanders 28-16 after two. One critical thing in the closing moments of the second period, was that Alexander Ovechkin was ahead of everyone and then was tripped by Jaroslav Halak so that he could not wrap around the goal. The penalty was delayed until the start of the third period.
They didn't score on the power play, but they did 42 seconds after that. Brooks Laich was able to get his first goal of the series to give the Capitals a 3-1 advantage, and the Capitals would just pile on from there. Kuznetsov scored his second goal of the game just 4 minutes later and then would add an assist to his fantastic game 3 minutes after that when Jason Chimera would get the third goal of the second period. Holtby was fantastic with a 96% save percentage, but Jaroslav Halak would actually get pulled from the game after goal number 5, stopping only 30 shots while 5 got through.
Could Michal Neuvrith be the goaltender on home ice for the Islanders in game 6? He did quite well in 11 minutes of relief and saved all 6 shots he faced. This writer suggest that a change in goal could switch things up and re-enforce the importance of a must win game 6 as they are now down 3-2 in the series as they head back to Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, for what could be their final home game in that stadium. Game 6 will be on Saturday, April 25, 2015 back on Long Island.