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"&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 To summarize how the Washington Capitals\u2019 penalty kill survived 67 seconds with two skaters shelved for cross-checking, to explain why Game 2 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals pivoted late in the first period, defenseman Matt Niskanen thought for a moment and arrived at two words.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CCommitment,\u201D he said, and then, \u201CHolts.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Capitals\u2019 4\u20131 win hinged on plenty of other moments than the snuffed 5-on-3, which left Verizon Center thundering and the Flyers wondering how no pucks found the net. Power-play goals from John Carlson, whipped from the point, and Alex Ovechkin, boomed from his usual spot in the left face-off circle, certainly helped. So did Steve Mason\u2019s gaffe that let Jason Chimera\u2019s 101-foot dump-in trickle between his legs.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In hindsight, though, nothing mattered more than when Chimera and Carlson jabbed their way into the penalty box less than one minute apart, gifting Philadelphia the chance to tie before the first intermission. Three missed shots, one blocked puck and three on-goal attempts later, the Capitals returned to even strength no worse for wear.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Praise commitment, sure, but mostly thank goaltender Braden Holtby.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CWe got some good looks, but at the end of the day, 5-on-3, especially at this time of the year, you\u2019ve got to score a goal there,\u201D Flyers coach Dave Hakstol said. \u201CTheir goaltender was outstanding in that stretch, as he was throughout the hockey game. But at the end of the day, that\u2019s one spot in the hockey game where we could\u2019ve turned the momentum.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Heading into Monday night\u2019s Game 3 at Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia\u2019s first home date after the death of longtime owner Ed Snider, the Flyers have cracked Holtby just once on 61 shots, a whopping 42 of which came on Saturday night, including 19 in the first period alone. They pestered him on the doorstep, sending big bodies like forward Wayne Simmonds to whack at rebounds. They hammered pucks from what Niskanen called \u201Ccrazy angles.\u201D They tried their best to, as forward Brayden Schenn put it Friday, \u201Cmake life miserable for Holtby,\u201D who entered as the active leader in postseason save percentage and goals against average.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Except for Jakub Voracek\u2019s second-period goal, which slid underneath Holtby\u2019s pad after the Capitals\u2019 back-checking coverage broke down, nothing worked.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201C[Holtby] was fantastic,\u201D Capitals coach Barry Trotz said. \u201CWe knew they were going to have a real big push. We expected it. They came hard. I thought we were handling it O.K. We had a little bit of an exchange that we sort of mishandled and took a penalty and it started ramping up from there. They were going to the net hard. We knew that was going to happen. We talked about it and we did. They were throwing pucks from everywhere, just trying to create chaos in front of the net.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;With three power-play goals in two games, meanwhile, the Capitals have now matched their entire output from last year\u2019s postseason, when their vaunted unit went just 3 for 29. Two of those goals have come courtesy of Carlson at the point, firing into heavy traffic while the Flyers shaded over toward Ovechkin\u2019s side. According to Trotz, the team\u2019s struggles last spring sparked a concentrated effort at tweaking its power-play setup, in games as well as between them, to counter whatever opposing penalty killers throw its way.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CIn the playoffs, it\u2019s a cat-and-mouse game,\u201D Carlson said. \u201CIt\u2019s constantly changing: on our end, on their end. You never know what you\u2019re going to get. You might think they\u2019re going to change and they don\u2019t. You never know until you get out there. We did a good job making adjustments on the fly.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The same applied on the other end during Philadelphia\u2019s 5-on-3, and later 41 seconds of 4-on-3 when forward T.J. Oshie took a hooking penalty midway through the middle period, not long after Voracek lugged the Flyers back within one goal. Holtby faced three shots on goal within 16 seconds then, turning away Simmonds\u2019s&amp;nbsp;backhander and wristers from Claude Giroux and Schenn. With that, the Capitals\u2019 shorthanded unit remained a perfect 7 for 7 in the series.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CI thought our power play was pretty good tonight,\u201D Hakstol said. \u201CBut their goaltender was a little bit better, so I guess we\u2019ve got to be a little bit better.\u201D\r\n&lt;/p&gt;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.si.com/nhl/2016/04/17/stanley-cup-playoffs-capitals-flyers-penalty-kill-holtby>