If you tuned into NBC’s Game of the Week, featuring the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Washington Capitals, you were in for a good down to the wire treat.

The game ended 3-2 for the Pens, but the ending was tragic for a Capitals team that now sits 7 points behind Carolina for the 3rd seed and a chance for the playoffs.

With less than 30 seconds remaining on the clock, Cindy (yes, Cindy) Crosby threw the puck in front of Caps goalie Cristobal Huet and it went to the young playmaker Nicklas Backstrom near the far post to Huet’s glove side.

Lying on the ice just a few seconds after, all you could think of for Huet was: he got McCabe’d.

Bacsktrom threw the puck into his own net, surprising everyone on the ice, the building and on their couches.
What’s more unbelievable about this, is that the Caps played a hard fought game and tested Marc Andre Fleury a total of 38 times, including 22 in the second period.
The former 1st overall pick looked sharp and secured a win for his team, making 36 stops.

On the other end, the save percentage doesn’t tell it all for Cristobal Huet, who only made 23 saves but 13 of those came in the 3rd period, including several game saving robberies on Evgeni Malkin (not once, twice, but THREE times) and on Jordan Staal.

Brooks Laich tipped in a nice shot by Alexander Semin in the high slot in the second period to give the Caps a 1-0 lead, on the powerplay.
A minute and nineteen seconds after that, Peter Sykora redirected his own shot in a bang bang play near Huet’s crease to tie the game at one a piece.
Pittsburgh will take the lead after a rebound in the crease is potted in by none other than our [beloved\hated] Sidney Crosby.
With the period winding down, Alexander Semin makes a great move and puts the puck past Fleury’s short side to give the Caps a one goal lead.

All in all, it was a physical playoff type game, with the Pens trying to reach 1st place in the Atlantic while the Caps were holding on for their playoff lives.

Donald Brashear wasn’t as involved in this game as he was in the last yesterday afternoon against the Bruins (took a 6-minute penalty) but teammate Matt Cooke remained as aggressive as ever, notably causing scrums after whistles in the crease and knocking Sergei Gonchar into his own goalie in the 2nd period.
Jarko Ruutu is a tough cookie as well, I love these type of games, plenty of emotion, of hitting, of offence, and last but not least, plenty of drama.

The drama in this game being Nicklas Backstrom securing the golf course for his teammates, scoring on his own goaltender with less than half a minute to play.

7 points is what seperates Washington and a playoff spot, and it’s highly unlikely, in my opinion, they can pull this off too.
Bruce Boudreau’s squad plays Carolina, division leader, 3 more times until the end of the season, so all hope might not be lost, but it’s dwindling at 11.3% right now.

-BBeR