Flyers, Capitals Play for Last Berth

The eyes of the hockey world and the cameras of five television organizations will be focused on soldout Capital Centre Saturday night as the Washington Capitals and Philadelphia Flyers settle the only Stanley Cup divisional semifinal playoff series still up for grabs.

The winner will be one-fourth of the way toward a drink from Lord Stanley’s cup and also will own home-ice advantage in the Patrick Division final opening Monday against the New Jersey Devils.

For the Capitals, it is an anniversary of sorts. A year ago, after letting a 3-1 series lead slip away, they came home and dropped a four-overtime decision to the New York Islanders.

This time, it is Washington that has battled back from a 3-1 deficit and anyone who watched the decisive 5-2 and 7-2 victories over the Flyers this week can only wonder why the series wasn’t over in four games.

Philadelphia has a lot of pride and a lot of tradition and it can be expected to call on both Saturday night. But if the Flyers once again call on goaltender Ron Hextall, the mystery remains as to who will show up, the all-star goalie of last season or the Sswiss cheese impersonator of recent games.

There is speculation Coach Mike Keenan must finally turn to backup Mark Laforest, who has a career goals-against average of 1.68 against Washington, but Keenan was noncommittal Friday.

Meanwhile, the Capitals once again will depend on Pete Peeters as they try to cast off their image as a team that blows big games. It is that crusade that virtually guarantees the absence of any overconfidence Saturday night.

“I doubt if we’ll have any feelings like that,” said center Dave Christian. “The last two games, we were faced with being out of the playoffs and we survived. Now, we have to survive and play another one. We’re all aware this still could be our last game of the season and we know what people will be saying if it is.”

“Right now, we’re just worried about winning one game,” said captain Rod Langway. “We’re 20 players playing for each other and we deserve a lot of credit for coming back, especially in the Spectrum. They’re lucky to be 3-3 at this stage, but it doesn’t give us any margin for error.”

The Capitals were as stunned as the Flyers by the 7-2 rout on Thursday. They have no illusions about being able to breeze past Philadelphia this time.

“I think it’ll be a real close, good hockey game,” said Coach Bryan Murray. “We’re fairly comparable teams. And in our case, I don’t think it’ll have anything to do with the past. We were backed against the wall two games in a row and I couldn’t ask the guys for anything more.

“It’s the same tomorrow; a loss and we’re out. There’s talk about their experience in games like this, but we have some experience, immediate experience, and that’s still good experience.”

The team that has scored first has won each of the six games. Center Mike Ridley got the Capitals off on top with the first goal in the last two matches and he noted that only four teams in Stanley Cup history, including last year’s Islanders, had overcome 3-1 deficits to win a best-of-seven series.

“It’s tough to come back from 3-1,” Ridley said. “But now we’ve got a lot of momentum coming home. It’s a tough thing to stop--just look at the New Jersey Devils. I’m not going to make any suggestions on how they (the Flyers) can come back. We’re in the driver’s seat and we have to keep driving.”

The Capitals have outscored the Flyers, 26-21, and the goals have been coming from everywhere--defense, power play, penalty killers and fourth line. Mike Gartner, who usually carries an inordinate scoring load, has just one goal. Not once has a Capital scored more than one goal in a game.

Bengt Gustafsson, Michal Pivonka and Kevin Hatcher have four apiece and each has been playing his best hockey of the season. Gustafsson, in particular, and Pivonka somewhat have been targets of straying Philadelphia sticks, but neither has backed down. Hatcher drew five minor penalties Thursday.

There is a suspicion Gustafsson was pacing himself during much of the regular season and Murray said, “Gus plays better in important situations, as much as you need him and whatever you ask. I saw it in Vienna (where Sweden won the 1987 world championships), where he was a dominant player.

“Two years ago, he broke a leg or I think we would have gone a distance with him. A lot of those freaky things have happened to us. During the season, Gus gave me lots of reason not to play him, but in games we had to win, after Christmas and after the All-Star Game, he played awfully well.”

Murray showed considerable patience with Pivonka during long stretches of the regular season when the Czech was not contributing much. It is paying off now.

“Michal has really played well,” Murray said. “I saw spurts during the year where he did some good things, but on a regular basis he hadn’t shown the ability to score every night. Those flashes of good play were becoming more frequent the last month or so and now he’s a real factor.

“He’s a young guy from a different situation than we’ve been in and he needed time to mature.”

Hatcher has been gaining confidence all season after struggling through a difficult second season. He moves the puck well and the Flyers have been reluctant to challenge him physically.

“Kevin thrives on the physical play,” Murray said. “Against a real quick team, he can be burned a little by outside speed. But he’s very strong in the corners and in front of the net. He’s been a tower of strength for us, especially with Scott (Stevens) and Rod in and out of the lineup.”