Semyon Varlamov made 21 saves to shut down the Washington Capitals 4-0 in a Game five victory to send the New York Islanders to the second round of the Eastern Conference at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto on Thursday.
Anthony Beauvillier had two goals both assisted by Josh Bailey. The first goal came during a power-play 10:15 into the first period. Beauvillier buried the puck off of a rebounding pass from Brock Nelson.
Beauvillier’s second goal came off a backhand shot at 9:33 in the second. He now has nine points in nine games and leads the NHL postseason with six goals tied with Bo Horvat from the Vancouver Canucks and Nazem Kadri from the Colorado Avalanche.
“I’m just trying to go out there and play your best and help your team to win,” Beauvillier said. “That’s kind of my main focus these last couple of weeks, and it’s been working. It’s going to be the same focus moving on.”
The last two goals came in the third from Nick Leddy and Josh Bailey when the Capitals removed Braden Holtby from net to give them a man advantage.
The Capitals have now been eliminated in the first round of the Playoffs in back-to-back seasons following their Stanley Cup win in 2018 when they were coached by Barry Trotz.
Trotz, the current Islanders Head Coach still recalls all the good memories with his old team. “Those guys are champions in my mind, they always will be,” Trotz said. “ It was one of those series where as a coach when you go through a series like that where you’ve had some success with a group of guys, it tears you a little but because there’s so many good memories”
The Capitals struggled in their 5-on-5 play scoring only three out of nine goals at even strength. The Capitals also only saw goals come from three of their top forwards Alexander Ovechkin, T.J Oshie and Evgeny Kuznetsov.
“I think looking back at our time here in Toronto, for whatever reason our team wasn’t able to mentally and physically get to our game for long enough,” Capitals Head Coach Todd Reirden said. “We had one game where we did it, and then, other than that, we weren’t able to find the game that gives us the best chance to have success. That’s going to be something that we’ll be reassessing and looking at this whole process. It’s a first time going through something like this. It’s a different mental and physical challenge. It’s important that we step away and reassess everything because this is not acceptable for our organization.”
The Islanders will now face the number one seed Philadelphia Flyers in the second round of the Stanley Cup. Game one will be on Monday. Puck drop is set for 7pm.
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