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That’s How The Puck Bounces in Washington

May 10, 2009, 4:26 AM UTC

Over the course of a lifetime, every ice rink is going to see its share of â†µunlucky bounces. But when it comes to bad bounces at critical moments, the east â†µend of the ice at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C., has seen more than its â†µfair share of late.
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â†µA little less than a month ago, the arena hosted the â†µNCAA Frozen Four. The final featured perennial college hockey power Boston â†µUniversity against Miami University. On that night, Miami held a two-goal lead â†µin the third period, only to see Boston Univeristy score twice into the net on â†µthe east end in the final minute to force overtime.
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â†µAnd once Boston â†µUniversity got to OT, an incredibly bad bounce off Miami defenseman â†µKevin Roeder gave the Terriers the game-winning goal. What was so â†µheartbreaking about that goal was that Roeder did exactly what he was â†µsupposed to do as he dropped to the ice to block a shot from Boston’s Colby â†µCohen.
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â†µSaturday night in Washington, it happened again, in Game 5 of the Capitals-Penguins Stanley Cup playoff series. This time the â†µvictim was Washington Capitals defenseman Tom Poti.
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An Alex Ovechkin â†µgoal late in the third period tied the game 3-3 and forced overtime. Having lost Games 3 and 4 in Pittsburgh, the Capitals were â†µdesperate to regain their momentum. They didn’t want to return to Pittsburgh for Game 6 down 3-2, especially after winning Games 1 and 2 at home.
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â†µBut at the tail end of a â†µpower play in OT, Pittsburgh’s Evgeni Malkin broke in over the Washington blue line â†µwith only 39-year old Sergei Fedorov to beat. For Fedorov, it was an unfamiliar â†µspot: normally a center, head coach Bruce Boudreau was forced to shift Fedorov â†µto defense to replace the injured John Erskine.
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â†µTaking â†µadvantage of his incredible speed, Malkin was able to turn the corner on Fedorov â†µand break in on Washington goalie Simeon Varlamov. Also heading straight toward â†µthe net through the slot was Pittsburgh center Sidney Crosby. Malkin saw him and â†µpushed a pass off of his backhand that Crosby could easily tap into an open net â†µbefore Varlamov could shift to the opposite post.
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â†µWhich was where Poti â†µentered the picture. Positioned to cut off the pass, Poti dived to intercept â†µit. “Their guy is coming down the wall ... You know it’s Malkin, so you can’t â†µgive him too much time and space and it became a two-on-one and I tried to go â†µdown to take the pass away,” he said.
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â†µAnd while the puck did clip his â†µstick, it took the worst of bounces, and deflected through Varlamov’s â†µfive-hole to give Pittsburgh the win.
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â†µWhen asked after the game if he could â†µhave done something differently, Poti said: “I don’t know. It’s tough because if â†µyou give him [Malkin] too much space to come in, he’s a guy who can make a play â†µand score the goal, so I don’t think there’s anything I’d do different again. It’s just an unlucky bounce and there’s nothing you can really do about â†µit.”
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â†µSomething tells me that Miami’s Kevin Roeder feels the same way.â†µ

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.

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