Capitals vs. Flyers: Philadelphia wins 3-2 in OT and sets a date with Montreal

Game 7, the biggest game of the season.

You win, you go on, if you lose, you hit the links.

What a team has worked for since training camp will now come down to 60 minutes.

Wow! Could you imagine a team thinking about that while trying to sleep the night before?

The fans in Washington came ready to help cheer on their Washington Capitals and attempted to propel them to the Conference Semi-Finals.

Early in the first period, Scott Hartnall took an interference penalty.

A little more than a minute later, Darien Hatcher took an undisciplined roughing penalty to put the Capitals on a 5-on-3.

Washington wasted little time though as Nicklas Backstrom extended his scoring streak to 4 games with a lucky bounce off the end boards where Backstrom was camped out to bang in the puck, putting Washington up 1-0 in the first.

Then it was Washington’s turn to play undisciplined.

A lazy play by Alexander Semin cost him a two minute date with the sin bin attendant.

Shortly after the call, Scottie Upshall brought the Flyers even at one goal a piece with a blast from the top right circle that just trickled through the five-hole of Cristobal Huet.

The teams went in to the first intermission back at square one.

One third of the game in the books and still tied just like it started.

Midway through the second period, Philadelphia caught a break.

Sami Kapanen put the Flyers up 2-1, but should it have counted?

Patrik Thoresen took a pass from an alert Martin Biron and sent a shot but it was stopped by Huet.

Shaone Morrisson then went flying into Huet and that left Kapanen with a yawning net.

Time for my soapbox!

In my opinion, Thoresen intentionally pushed Morrisson into Huet and should have been called for interference.

I thought this would be devastating to Washington, but I couldn’t have been more incorrect.

Less than six minutes after the Kapanen goal, Alexander Ovechkin came screaming down the wing and snapped a shot over Martin Biron's shoulder tying it up, 2-2.

The Capitals showed tremendous poise by keeping their cool even after what they  surely believed was a disallowed goal.

Just after the end of the second period, Sami Kapanen was interviewed and said,

“We are a very confident team right now, and we are going to advance to the second round.”

A very bold statement from a team who was on their third attempt to knock off the Capitals; the Flyers facing elimination this time.

The game went into the third period and the goalies wouldn’t budge.

They stood tall with both clubs exchanging chances.

The game went into overtime that had more of the same type of play.

That is until Tom Poti took a tripping penalty with just under five minutes spent into the first overtime.

The penalty had nearly expired when Kimmo Timonen blasted a shot that Huet was able to stop but Huet lost sight of the puck, allowing Joffrey Lupul to slide the puck in the net from the backhand, soaring the Flyers into the Conference Semi-Finals.