The Washington Capitals squandered their second straight chance to eliminate the New York Rangers, but Alex Ovechkin confidently decreed his team will win Game 7 and he has the support of his coach.
The Capitals jumped out to a commanding 3-1 series lead over the Rangers, but then dropped Game 5, 2-1 after being less than two minutes away from victory at Madison Square Garden and lost Game 6 at home 4-3 on Sunday.
The Eastern Conference Round 2 series will now go the distance.
Washington's captain was unfettered by the back-to-back losses and guaranteed a victory in Game 7 back at MSG on Wednesday.
"We're going to come back and win the series," Ovechkin told reporters, according to ESPN. "We're going to play our game, and we're going to come back and we're going to play Montreal or Tampa."
Capitals coach Barry Trotz was approached about Ovechkin's comments and said he "loved" them.
"I love it," Trotz said via ESPN. "I saw that, and that's what leaders do. I think leaders say, 'This is what we need to do, this is what we're going to do.' I think I have a lot more respect for someone who will be bold enough to say, 'I'm the leader of the hockey team, we're going to go there and give our best game, we're going to win the hockey game.' I'd rather have that than a leader go, 'Well, we're going there to lose.' I mean, come on. What do you expect a player to say?"
Ovechkin has yet to lead the Capitals to the Eastern Conference Finals, but his team remains just one victory away from getting there for the first time since 1998 after squandering a 3-1 series lead against the Presidents' Trophy-winning Rangers.
Ovechkin, 29, hasn't scored in the past four games and has four goals and four assists for eight points this postseason.
The Capitals are 0-9 in series where they've allowed a 3-1 lead to slip away and this marks the ninth time in Ovechkin's 11-career playoff series where it has gone the distance.
Washington is 3-5 in Game 7s with Ovechkin and dropped two straight do or die games to New York in 2012 and 2013 after taking them out in seven games in 2009.
The Rangers are 6-0 all-time in Game 7s at Madison Square Garden.
Still, statistics mean nothing to an individual game and The Great Eight has guaranteed a Capitals victory on Wednesday.
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