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WASHINGTON — As scripts go, Jeff Halpern probably could have written a better one.
But for the Washington Capitals forward, the ending was exactly what he would have drawn up.
Playing in his first game since March 23, Halpern was assessed a double-minor for high-sticking in the second period of Game 6 on Wednesday night when he cut New York Rangers forward John Mitchell on the nose.
With the Caps leading 2-0, Halpern went to the penalty box at 12:05 of the second period. But the Rangers, who scored the tying and winning goals in Game 5 with Washington’s Joel Ward serving a similar penalty, failed to beat goalie Braden Holtby.
“I was probably counting down the clock more than anyone in the building,” Halpern said. “It’s a long four minutes. Your first thought is negative, and there could have been two bang-bang goals. But (the Caps) did a great job bailing me out.”
Halpern took the place of Jay Beagle, who sat out after blocking a shot in Game 5.
That the Capitals were able to kill off Halpern’s penalties was crucial in a 2-1 victory.
“It sucked,” Rangers coach John Tortorella said of the Rangers’ inability to score. “That kills you.”

NEW YORK — John Tortorella hasn’t had much to say to reporters at times during the 2012 Stanley Cup playoffs.
But after his New York Rangers took an emotional 3-2 overtime victory against the Washington Capitals on Monday night, Tortorella came to the defence of one of his top players.
Namely, Brad Richards, who scored the tying goal on a power play with 6.6 seconds remaining in regulation.
“He has been doing it for quite a while, for the past few months here,” Tortorella, the Rangers’ coach, said. “People were crawling all over him a little bit earlier in the year when he was trying to find his bearings, but he has been a been a pretty big part of us getting a seed, as far as the playoffs.
“I thought he was brutal the last game. It was probably one of the few games that he struggled, but he has been a big-time player for us.”
Richards also won 12 of the 18 faceoffs he took in Game 5. Signed as a free agent by the Rangers last summer, Richards won a Cup in 2004 with Tortorella and the Tampa Bay Lightning.

NEW YORK — As part of his preparation for each game, Washington Capitals coach Dale Hunter usually will highlight the guys who are leading in blocked shots.
Now, like a group of proud school kids, every Capital apparently wants to hear his name read out by the headmaster.
“At the end of the night, they look to see how many they have, and they if they did the job, or forced them not to shoot,” Hunter said on Monday morning. “It’s a commitment to be made, and for them to do it, it hurts. It does not feel good to get hit by a puck when it’s going as hard as shots are coming in now.”
The Caps, of course, will keep throwing their bodies in front of rubber. They lead the NHL in the 2012 Stanley Cup playoffs with 244 blocked shots, and it’s a tactic that helped them draw even at 2-2 in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal against the New York Rangers.
It has been just as much of a factor for the Rangers, who are second with 232 blocks. Consider that the Philadelphia Flyers are third in the playoffs with 177, and you get the picture of what kind of influence it has had in the Rangers/Capitals series.
Don’t expect much to change in Game 5 on Monday night at Madison Square Garden.
“It’s a tight series,” Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist said. “A mistake here or there, each game that might be the difference. We know how important this game is.”
What there has not been a lot of in the series is the after-whistle skirmishes. But the fight for every inch of ice has been done through attrition.
You want tight? Just one of the first four games was decided by one goal. There’s no reason to believe that will change in the next three games, provided three are required to determine the series winner.
“All series take on a life of their own,” Rangers coach John Tortorella said. “This has, to me, been even a harder series to play. This has been a straight-ahead, hard series, and in most facets of it, harder than the Ottawa series.”
Capitals star Alexander Ovechkin, who did not face ay disciplinary action over his hit on Rangers defenceman Dan Girardi in Game 4, knows he will hear it from the intense Rangers fans at MSG on Monday.
Washington will do everything it can to score first, as it is 6-1 in the post-season when that happens.
“When we score first, we feel comfortable,” Ovechkin said. “But it doesn’t matter, it’s still a 60-minute game. The momentum can change quickly.
“I can’t wait. It’s always nice to hear when fans boo you or cheer you. On the ice, I don’t hear it. On the bench, I hear it.”
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SUNRISE, Fla. — Adam Henrique, as a kid, always imagined scoring an overtime goal in Game 7.
What good Canadian boy doesn’t? And the New Jersey Devils rookie went one further early on Friday morning, scoring at 3:47 of double overtime in Game 7 as the Devils eliminated a stubborn Florida Panthers team in the Eastern Conference quarterfinal with a 3-2 win.
“I think I blacked when I heard the thud at the back of the net,” Henrique said. “NHL Game 7 winner, it’s like playing mini sticks at home. That’s the game you always play. Hallway, in the living room.”
The line of Henrique between David Clarkson and Alexei Ponikarovsky had not scored much in the series, but their solid fore-checking led to chances. And so it was as the clock struck 12:17 a.m. at the BankAtlantic Center, as Henrique’s linemates got the puck to him after some dogged determination.
Henrique, who scored his first goal of the series on a deflection early in the first period, beat Panthers goalie Jose Theodore from the slot with a shot along the ice that went between the netminder’s legs.
“He is a guy who is able to raise his game when the game is on the line,” Devils coach Peter DeBoer said of Henrique, who was announced as a Calder Trophy finalist this week. “He seems to have that characteristic. We were waiting on that line and him and I think he looked very comfortable.”
The Devils got 43 saves from legendary goaltender Martin Brodeur, who was at his best in the third period, despite giving up two goals, and in overtime.
New Jersey will clash with the Philadelphia Flyers in the Eastern Conference semifinals, with Game 1 on Sunday afternoon in Philadelphia. It’s the first time the Devils have moved on to the semis since 2007.
The Panthers, who held a 3-2 series lead after five games, have not won a playoff round since 1996.
New Jersey’s series win marked some redemption for DeBoer, who was fired by the Panthers last April.
Since their most recent Stanley Cup title, in 2003, the Devils have met the Flyers twice in the playoffs and lost in five games both times. Two years ago, the Flyers beat the Devils in the conference quarterfinals, and did the same in 2004.
In their history, the Devils have met the Flyers in five playoff series and have won two of them.
Brodeur played in the 10th Game 7 of his storied career and improved to 6-4.
Stephen Gionta also scored for the Devils.
Stephen Weiss and Marcel Goc scored for the Panthers.
New Jersey appeared to be relatively safe after 40 minutes as they built a two-goal lead and the Panthers had just 14 shots on goal.
But no lead was safe in the series, and the Panthers got themselves off the mat. They even overcame some adversity to do it, as Tomas Fleischmann thought he scored just over a minute into the third. But referee Dan O’Rourke waved the goal off immediately and gave Florida’s Shawn Matthias a goaltender interference penalty after Matthias ran over Brodeur.
Yet the Panthers were not frustrated and scored two power-play goals.
Weiss got the fans out of their seats when he scored at 5:02 after he fired a one-time over the left shoulder of Brodeur.
And the crowd of 19,313, which had booed the Panthers off the ice at the end of the second period, went bananas when Goc scored the tying goal at 16:32 with Devils defenceman Marek Zidlicky was in the penalty box serving a delay of game minor. The goal came just 20 seconds after Zidlicky was sent off.
Brodeur was perfect after that, and his toe save on John Madden in the first period of overtime might have been his best.
“This is not where the hockey people predicted us to be at the start of the year,” Weiss said. “We’ve done some good things. We’re obviously disappointed not being able to move on.
“It stings to lose at home. But we’ve got some bright years ahead.”
Said Kris Versteeg: “I thought we were going to win at the end, and I still thought we were going to win right until the puck went in the net. I still can’t believe we lost.”
The Panthers have a handful of players headed for free agency, but none more important than defenceman Jason Garrison.
Also destined to be free on July 1 are forwards Marco Sturm, Madden and Mikael Samuelsson and backup goaltender Scott Clemmensen.
The Panthers’ financial situation also could come into sharper focus in the coming weeks. There have been rumblings that the team will file for bankruptcy, but there was not much talk of that publicly in south Florida as the Panthers made their first playoff appearance in 12 years.
Interest in the team isn’t exactly shooting through the roof. The crowd was 200 less than the attendance for Game 5 and there were enough empty seats in the upper bowl that the club should be concerned. It was the first Game 7 in the building, and not every seat was full. That’s an alarm bell if nothing else.

SUNRISE, Fla. — Curious to see if Brian Burke’s words come back to bite a bit tonight.
The Maple Leafs general manager was asked at his post-season news conference two weeks ago about the job Panthers general manager Dale Tallon had done in turning Florida around and getting the club to the playoffs for the first time since 2000.
“They signed a bunch of guys to four-year contracts, had a first-year coach, had a good run, and we will see if they can sustain that,” Burke said. “I like Dale Tallon very much and I admire him, but again, I am not interested in making the playoffs one time so I can stand up here and say I made the playoffs.”
The Panthers and New Jersey Devils are contesting Game 7 of their Eastern Conference quarterfinal at the BankAtlantic Center.