Varly faced 42 shots on the night – many of them quality chances – and turned away all but 3. The Caps were outplayed and outworked most of the night, but the outstanding young Russian kept the Caps in the game, allowing them to force overtime, and ultimately, put themselves in position to steal a win.

History was not on their side last night. The Capitals have pulled out to a 2-0 lead in a best of seven series five times in franchise history. All five times, the Caps have gone on to lose game 3, and in all but one, they have gone on to lose the series. Notably, the series they did win, they won in 5 games en route to the Stanley Cup finals.

As for last night’s game, the scoring got started early for the Caps. Mike Green dumped the puck into the Penguins zone to facilitate a line change. Alex Ovechkin drove in on the forecheck as Pens netminder Marc-Andre Fleury left the crease to corral the puck, dropping his stick in the process. Somehow, the puck bounced off the boards out in front of the net, directly in front of a charging Ovechkin. Ovie had the whole goal to shoot at, and didn’t miss on a diving shot, past a diving Fleury.

Initially, it seemed to stun the Penguins, and Washington’s offense began to press, culminating in a wrap-around attempt by Nicklas Backstrom that slid across the crease past a wide-open net. From that point forward, the Penguins dominated the game, with the formula used in the regular season by teams like the San Jose Sharks, Los Angeles Kings and Columbus Blue Jackets to beat the Caps: an ultra-aggressive forecheck and relentless physicality. If not for the Caps’ 21-year-old netminder, this game could easily have been a blow-out.

The entire second period looked as if the Capitals were on the penalty kill. The Pens seemed to have possession of the puck for 70% of the period. When the Caps did get possession, they were lucky to get it out of their own zone, let alone create quality chances.

On top of the offensive woes, the Caps couldn’t stay out of the penalty box. It seemed every time Evgeni Malkin touched the puck, the Caps were called for a penalty. The Penguins had six straight power plays, and again, Varlamov was there to save the day, stopping point blank shots, making diving saves and frustrating the fired up Pens at every turn. His magic ran out in the sixth, after Alexander Semin was called for hooking, as Evgeni Malkin, who dominated the Capitals all evening, finally found the back of the net.

The Capitals finally got their chance with the man advantage for the second time with just under two minutes to play in the third period, and boy did they take advantage. Caps sophomore Nicklas Backstrom made up for his earlier miss with a goal off the back of Fleury, and just like that, the Caps found themselves tied at 2, in a game that could easily have been 6-1 at that point.

The Caps came to life, and had several quality chances in the last two minutes of regulation, and in overtime, Ovechkin had two quality chances within seconds of each other, but fanned on one and lost the puck on the other.

Unfortunately for Simeon, at 11:23 of the first OT, he made a stop on a full-court pass that just missed a driving Malkin, and the ensuing face-off was his undoing. In a play eerily similar to the one Ovechkin scored his second goal of game 2, Sidney Crosby beat David Steckel on the face off for only the third time all evening. The puck trickled back to Mark Eaton, who sent a cross-ice pass to the waiting Kris Letang. Letang, who had fanned on two quality chances of his own in OT, nailed this one. The puck careened off of defenseman Shaonne Morrisson over the glove of Varlamov, off the cross bar and in to end game 3.

As mentioned before, the Capitals have had little success in series in which they hold a 2-0 lead, but as the history of this post-season has shown, the Caps are routinely re-writing their history. Hopefully the boys in red, white and blue will come back for game 4 a little more fired up and continue to distinguish themselves from previous Caps teams, en route to the finals. For now though, they need to focus on game 4.

There’s a pretty good chance that Bruce Boudreau is telling his team that at this very moment. That, and telling George McPhee to sign Varlamov for a long, long time.

Feel free to remove the Hershey Bears logo from half of your goalie mask.

For a 20-year-old rookie to have a .5 goals against average after his first two Stanly Cup play-off starts is phenomenal. I can’t imagine any circumstance under which you should ever leave the big league team again.

Your size, athleticism and power in front of the net — and the roucous New York crowd — really made itself known last night at MSG, and to play the way you in did in that spot and in that environment is a testament to what you bring to the table as a top-flight netminder in the NHL.

The crazy thing is that you will get better as you gain more experience. Your perceived over-aggressive style of play that you make up for now with speed and strength will likely get more controlled as you make your way through your career, but this season, with a spotlight on this post-season, has shown that you are ready to begin that journey.

I am a big Brent Johnson fan. I like that he came here as a starter and assumed the role of back-up behind Olie even though his numbers were comparable, and fit right in. I will always be grateful for the way he played when called upon, and the leadership he provided in the locker room, but I fear Varly’s coming out party may just mark the end of your time in the Nation’s Capital, unless you sign with Ottawa.

Sure Simeon, your production over the next few games might drop off and the Caps may lose this series, but I think you have shown you are ready for a shot, and if I ran the team, this would mark the beginning of the time when the Washington Capitals are your team.

Good luck on Wednesday, keep up the good work. Oh, and if you accidentily knock Sean Avery on his tail a few times, we won’t be mad.  I’ll give you a quick English lesson. Sean Avery = иДиот.

Tops in the league in goals by a defensemen is Mike Green, who scored numbers 26 and 27 last night in the Capitals 5-2 victory over Tamba Bay (the 9th straight victory by the Capitals over the Bolts, by the way). This victory pushed the Caps back into the second overall position in the East.

While these are huge stories for the Capitals, the biggest story is a little bit more big picture and not quite so evident unless you’re looking for it, and that is the phenomenal job General Manager George McPhee has done building this team. The Caps are Rocking the Red this season, and as a Caps fan, I couldn’t be happier, but the real story is that this team is built to be a perennial contender; this team is built to withstand injuries and attrition.

This season, this fact has really come to the forefront. Last night, Quintin Laing became the 15th Hershey Bear to be recalled to the Big Club to fill in for an injured starter, and like the other 15, he stepped in and stepped up. Boyd Gordon is out 2-3 weeks with a broken finger, and, like we have seen time and time again, McPhee had a player waiting in the wings that played the same type of game, possesses the same skill set, and the Caps kept on rolling.

Last week, it was more of the same. Sergei Federov falls ill, and Keith Aucoin stepped in and the Caps didn’t miss a beat. Brent Johnson goes down, Simeon Varlamov and Michal Neuvirth are there to pick up the pieces. This team is ripe with talent at all levels, and will be contenders for a long time to come. Its been awhile since Capitals fans could be so excited about the state of the franchise and the possibilities on the horizon. Thanks to George McPhee and Ted Leonsis, that time is now and for the foreseeable future.

It didn’t look good for the Red, White and Blue early in the contest. Just 50 seconds into the game, Ryan Suter put one in the back of the net, beating Jose Theodore on a wrister from just inside the blue line.

Then, about seven minutes later, all hell started to break loose. It started when Jordin Tootoo leveled Donald Brashear along the side boards. Brashear hit Tootoo, and then Matt Bradley took a run at him. At the 12:27 mark, Brashear went after Wade Belak and the two dropped the gloves. The two went toe-to-toe for a few seconds, and then for the first time I can remember since Brash joined the Capitals, he took a left to the chin and crumpled to the ice. Brash left the game with a sprained knee suffered during his collapse.

Three seconds later, Matt Bradley and Jordin Tootoo threw down just after the face-off to start play after the Brash-Belak bout. This one didn’t end much better for the Caps. Brads sustained a cut over his nose from a Tootoo head… or is it helmet butt. The right winger left the ice in a bloody mess.

At the end of the first period, the Caps found themselves down 3-0 — one on the score sheet and two in the fight card. It didn’t help that the Pred’s netminder Dan Ellis was standing on his head and Washington continued the pattern of missing the net or hitting a defender on every other shot that has contributed mightily to their recent skid.

The second period started out slow, but after the first minute or so, they started to get it together. Around the 4 minute mark, Wade Belak decided 1 5-minute major for fighting wasn’t enough, as he took on Caps big man John Erskine. This time, Erskine held his own (only his second fight of the entire season), fighting to a draw. This ended the boxing portion of the evening, and even though the Caps found themselves short-staffed and holding a record of 0-2-1 after their three bouts, the team really seemed to pull together after that.

Ellis continued his stellar play, but Backstrom put Washington on the score sheet late in the second with a beautiful follow-up on the rebound in front. The play started when Backstrom and Viktor Kozlov skated down the right side, while Ovechkin streaked down the left. Kozlov pulled up at the top of the circle and fired a beautiful cross-ice pass to Ovie, who had pulled up at the top of the slot on the left. While this was happening, Backstrom continued driving to the front of the net. Ovie fired a wrister, and Ellis gave up the rebound right on to Backstrom’s stick for the easy put-away.

The third period was more of the same, highlighted by great goaltending and physical play. The only excitement came late in the period, just after a Caps power play ended. Viktor Kozlov fired a shot on net that bounced off the upper leg of Tomas Fleischmann, who was fighting for position in front of Ellis. Flash’s leg was moving forward when the puck hit him. The play was reviewed and the goal washed out as a kick in. The play was far from cut-and-dry. Yes, Fleischmann’s leg was moving forward, but whether it was a deliberate kick or the product of his fight for position is questionable, particularly given the part of the leg that Kozlov’s shot hit. Unfortunately for the Caps, the call went the other way, setting up Feds’ historic game-winner.

One of the moves Coach Boudreau makes in overtime that I absolutely love is the insertion of Sergei Federov as a Forward-Defenseman. He is far from a liability in his own zone, and gives the Caps an extra forward in the offensive zone. This worked out brilliantly for the Caps last night.

Once again, Viktor Kozlov was the catalyst. Kozlov brought the puck into the offensive zone and passed cross-rink to Semin on the right side. Semin skated into the corner, and then passed back to Kozlov in the slot. Koz put the puck on the stick of Feds in front, who deked to the right past Dan Ellis and put the back hand into an empty net.

It took two beautiful goals and two ugly fights, but the Caps ended their losing ways. It’s better to slump in early March than late April, I guess. Hopefully, this will get the Caps back in their winning ways heading into the post-season.