|
 |   |
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Multimedia Central Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities Work in Sports
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE |  |
Like a Rockne Down 3-0, Wilson wants his Capitals to think big
Posted: Tuesday April 18, 2000 08:16 PM
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Forget the one-game-at-a-time approach. Capitals coach Ron Wilson wants his team to think big. "First of all," he said, "we've got to believe we can win the series before we can proceed with just worrying about winning one game." The Capitals are down 3-0 to the Pittsburgh Penguins going into Game 4 Wednesday. They are trying to become only the third team in NHL history to win a series from such a deficit. "He told us if anybody here doesn't believe we can win the series, there's no sense in playing," goaltender Olaf Kolzig said. Pittsburgh has taken control by drawing the Capitals into playing the Penguins' preferred open-ice game, by getting the Caps to take unnecessary penalties, by surprisingly having the hotter goaltender and by taking advantage of an unusual schedule that put the lower-seeded Penguins at home for Games 2 and 3. "We've got all top guys," said Jaromir Jagr, who has a goal and seven assists in the series. "Fifteen guys are top guys on our team. Everybody's scoring goals." Goalie Ron Tugnutt has been better than Kolzig, a startling development considering Tugnutt has never won a playoff series and Kolzig has been mentioned as an MVP candidate. Tugnutt has kept Washington from building on 1-0 first-period leads in back-to-back games, frustrating the Capitals out of their style. "There's a psychology in sports that when you're dominating and you're not getting the results that you start to change," Wilson said. "We ended up playing Penguins hockey." Still, Wilson gave his team plenty of reasons to hope. For one thing, the Capitals were written off way back in December, when they were a losing and disjointed team. "We have a lot of pride. We've been down before," Wilson said. "We came from 14th in the conference to second and dug ourselves out of an incredible hole, a comeback that was deemed unlikely. "We put ourselves in a position where we can write an even nicer story about ourselves to come back from a deficit like this." Also, the 1-2-2-1-1 playoff schedule, arranged because Pittsburgh's arena wasn't available for certain dates, now favors the Capitals. They have three of the last four at home -- assuming they get to play that many. "At least the hope is there that if we can return to form on home ice that we're going to have to just win one game in Pittsburgh," Wilson said. "We've won four in a row a number of times this year. We've had the longest undefeated streak in the league this year. We've had the longest winning streak at home. We finished higher in the standings. There's a lot of things that we can point to that say there's a chance we can come back in the series." With a few breaks and perhaps some better calls from the referees, the Capitals feel they could easily be winning the series 2-1. They controlled the first period in Games 2 and 3 playing the tight-checking hockey that made them the hottest regular season team since Christmas. The Penguins realize that, too. A quicker start by Jagr & Co. on Wednesday could be the best way to guarantee an early end to the series. "We have to improve on those first periods," defenseman Jiri Slegr said. "It's not good. We're not always going to be lucky to battle back and win the game." Said Tugnutt: "Every game's been tougher and tougher. And I expect Game 4 to be the toughest of all."
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
