Christian Post Report – With the regular season wrapped up, the top teams are left and the New York Islanders play the Washington Capitals at the Verizon Center in the first game of their playoff series. The match is on April 15, 2015 at 7 p.m. PM ET.
Metropolitan Division rivals, the Captials finished second and won home advantage despite being tied on points with the Islanders.
NHL
The NHL is looking to expand has Las Vegas in its sights
Washington ended their regular season with a loss against the New York Rangers. Before that loss they won two straight games and had six straight games where they secured at least a point.
On the other hand, the Islanders scored a point against the Columbus Blue Jackets in their last game as they lost 5-4 in a penalty shootout. They have alternated wins in their last seven matches to close out the season.
As far as their head-to-head battles are concerned, they met a total of four times this year, with the series split 2-2.
In their first meeting, the Islanders won 3-2 in overtime thanks to a John Tavares goal in the extra period. Anders Lee and Travis Hamonic scored for New York, while Alex Ovechkin tied things up on separate occasions to bring the game to overtime but fell short and Washington had to settle for a point.
The Capitals bounced back in the second game as they played as hosts, beating New York 5-2 with Andre Burakovsky and Marcus Johansson scoring early for Washington but was leveled by Tavares and Lee. However, three goals in the last two periods separated the two teams to give Washington their revenge.
Their third meeting in New York ended similar to their first meeting, an overtime win for the Islanders, this time with Johnny Boychuck being the hero for the hosts.
And just to prove how evenly matched these two teams are, the fourth meeting ended in a Washington victory, but New York also had a point as the game ended in a 3-2 penalty shootout win for the Capitals.
With close games in the regular season, expect a tight match in the first round of the playoffs.
For live updates, go to NHL.com. For live streaming, click here.
Source : Christian Post