The year was 1998. The Washington Caps had endured year upon year of playoff frustration (mostly at the hands of the Pittsburgh Penguins...as astutely noted by Caputo's Corner reader and Penguins fan Phil). Fortunately in this year, the Caps did not have to face the Penguins. The Caps earned the #4 seed in the Eastern Conference, and if seeds held, were looking straight at a 2nd round matchup with 2-time Cup champion New Jersey. The Caps took care of business in the first round dispatching Boston in 6 games. The other top seeds in the East that year? Not so much. In what is a rather disturbing trend for #1 seeds in hockey, Ottawa took care of the Devils in 6. Buffalo dispatched Philadelphia in 5 games, and Montreal took care of the Caps' nemesis Pittsburgh in 6. As a result, the Caps guaranteed themselves home ice advantage for the rest of the Eastern bracket. In hockey, teams are reseeded after the first round so instead of the Penguins, the Caps got the upstart Senators, who apparently used up all of their magic in round one as the Caps took care of them in 5 games. Buffalo KOed Montreal in a 4-game sweep setting up probably one of the least likely of conference finals series.
In the conference finals, Buffalo was anchored by their all star goalie Dominik Hasek. The Caps countered with Godzilla, but his friends call him Olie Kolzig. In a tough, physical, series that was filled with fights (thanks to the combustible personalities of Rob Ray, Matthew Barnaby, Craig Berube, and Chris Simon), the Caps and Sabres traded blows. Buffalo won the opening game at the Verizon (then known as MCI) Center, but then the Caps ran off 3 wins in a row to have a chance to clinch at home in Game 5. However, Hasek pitched a shutout to send the series back to Buffalo and a Game 6. Game 6 went to overtime (the 3rd such game in the series to do so). Then, Joe Juneau found himself in the right place at the right time to catch a rebound off of a Brian Bellows shot.
That would be the final series clinching win for the Caps over the next 11 years. In the Stanley Cup Final against Detroit, the Caps were swept 4-0. The turning point in that series had to be when Esa Tikkanen missed a wide open net in Game 2. Had he scored there, the Caps would have taken a 2 goal lead with 8 minutes left in the 3rd period, all but ensuring that the series would have gone to DC tied 1-1. As it was, Detroit ended up winning in OT and the Caps just could not muster any more magic. Today, however, we honor Joe Juneau for his Game 6 OT heroics, bringing the Caps their first (and to date only) Eastern Conference/Wales Conference championship.
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