Capitals-Blue Jackets Game 6: Washington wins series; Pittsburgh, Sidney Crosby next

Game 6

Washington Capitals 6, Columbus Blue Jackets 3

Series: Capitals win, 4-2

• Washington started the series with its back against a wall, but four straight wins push the Capitals through to Round 2.

• Top takeaways: Penalty kill, and that Alex Ovechkin guy, helped turn the series. 

• A frantic start to the third period saw four goals in the first nine minutes, two by each team, but Washington never let Columbus get closer than 5-3. The Capitals added an empty-netter with 14 seconds remaining and won 6-4. Washington advances to face Pittsburgh in Round 2. 

• Chandler Stephenson has impressed in his promotion to the top-six forward corps. 

• Blue Jackets Coach John Tortorella has evolved, but he hasn’t lost his fire. 

In a tight series, Washington’s back was to the wall, then it broke through
by Isabelle Khurshudyan

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Washington Capitals celebrated like it was any other victory. Goaltender Braden Holtby straightened in net as his teammates calmly left the bench and skated over to hug him one-by-one. The mood in the locker room was happy but subdued.

The Caps rolled to a 6-3 win over the Jackets in Game 6 in Columbus on Monday night, finishing the series with four straight victories, three of them on the road and two of them in overtime. In doing so, the Caps made history - they're the first team ever to lose the first two games of a playoff series in overtime and at home, and to rebound from that early adversity to win the series.

What the Capitals’ 6-3 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets in Game 6 of their first-round Stanley Cup playoff series gave the hockey world is what the hockey world wants, another matchup between Ovechkin’s Capitals and their chief nemesis, Sidney Crosby’s Pittsburgh Penguins. Nationally, that matchup may set up for punchlines at the Capitals’ expense, because they have met three times before and the results have been Penguins in seven, Penguins in six and Penguins in seven — the last two in each of the last two years, perhaps leaving the deepest, darkest scars on both Ovechkin and a Caps fan base that so desperately wants its captain and hero to break through that wall.