Caps beat 'Guins in opener

Crosby struck first, Ovechkin cashed in on a 5 on 3, Varlamov let in a soft one - but made an incredible save and the Caps take game one.

The save of the game, with the score 2-2 was Varlamov stretching his stick back across the net to just get enough to rob Crosby on what would have been the go-ahead goal.

The Aquatic Birds outshot the Caps 36-26.

Ovechkin (The Human Puck Vortex) shot 9 times, a full third of his team's offense, scoring once only - while his team was in a 5 on 3 powerplay. He was -1 on the day ion plus-minus.

Varlamov gave up an early goal to Crosby, and a soft one later to Flieshmann, but hung tough and made 34 saves in the victory.

Meanwhile, the Blackhawks evened their series with the Canucks at 1-1 with a 6-3 win (in a game they trailed 2-0 after one.