Bachner

Funny, "Ted's Take" has yet to be updated today…

You hear a lot about how a team takes on the personality of its captain, and I think we saw that last night. The Caps are a flashy team that folded when the stakes were at their highest. No denying his talent, but Ovechkin is not a winner at this point in his career.

For more information on this game, please visit our Canadiens site, Habs Eyes On The Prize, and our Capitals site, Japers' Rink.

Washington, DC (Sports Network) – Montreal pulled off the improbable Wednesday, riding another stellar effort from Jaroslav Halak and goals from Marc-Andre Bergeron and Dominic Moore to beat Washington, 2-1, in Game 7 of their Eastern Conference quarterfinal series.

The Canadiens faced a 3-1 series deficit, but Halak stopped 90-of-92 shots in Games 5 and 6 to help the Habs even the matchup. The goaltender made another 41 saves Wednesday, and now the eighth-seeded Canadiens find themselves back in the Eastern Conference semifinals for the first time since 2008.

They will face the fourth-seeded Penguins in that round, and the matchup will begin Friday in Pittsburgh. The Penguins are the only higher-seeded Eastern Conference team to have advanced out of the quarterfinals.

The other semifinal will be between sixth-seeded Boston and No.7 seed Philadelphia, starting Saturday afternoon.

For Washington, the series loss can be viewed as nothing but a disaster. Not only were the Capitals the Presidents' Trophy winners during the regular season with 121 points, they had three chances to close the series — including two at home, where they were 30-5-6 during the season.

The Capitals got their lone goal with 2:16 left, when Brooks Laich backhanded the puck past Halak. Washington continued to scramble and got an extra attacker following a Montreal penalty inside the final two minutes, but the Canadiens were successful in repeatedly clearing the puck, twice nearly scoring on an empty net, and held on for the win.

Semyon Varlamov was beaten twice on only 16 shots, and Wednesday's result meant another early playoff exit for the Capitals, who have been ousted in the quarters in two of the last three seasons.

Alex Ovechkin was held scoreless despite taking a game-high 10 shots on goal.

Washington is the first Eastern Conference top seed to lose in the quarterfinals since Boston in 2002, when the Bruins were beaten in six games by Montreal.

It's the second time the Canadiens have come back from a 3-1 deficit to win a series. Montreal pulled off the feat against Boston in the first round of the 2004 playoffs.

Remember the days when it was impossible to score against Italian teams? When Serie A defenses were so mean that European attackers would melt in their boots? When hitting just one goal against a side from the peninsula was considered an achievement?

For a variety of reasons – including the backpass and offside rules, disgracefully synthetic footballs, faster pitches, fitter players, zonal marking, and perhaps a slowdown in the production line – Italian club backlines over the last decade had lost their mojo somewhat.

What we saw from Inter tonight, though, was a throwback to some of the great Italian defensive displays from the past. Granted, the Nerazzurri do not possess a single homegrown player in their entire starting XI, let alone their back four, and Barcelona certainly played into their hands with their somewhat predictable short passing game, but it cannot be underestimated what an achievement it is to keep at bay the world’s best attacking unit for over an hour with just ten men. Kudos to Jose Mourinho once again, of course, for getting his tactics spot on.

For long spells of the match, it was almost too easy for the Inter defense. Aside from a world class Julio Cesar finger-tip save from Lionel Messi in the first half, Barca did not create a chance of note for the first 80 minutes. It was only when centerback Gerard Pique was pushed up-front for the final 10 minutes that the Blaugrana started to ask questions. Bojan missed a virtual open goal before Pique set up a grandstand finish with 83 minutes on the clock. But Inter heroically managed to hold on, even if they had their hearts in their mouth when Bojan had a winner disallowed for a handball by Yaya Toure that appeared to be ball-to-hand.

But Barca can’t complain about the referee tonight, as Sergio Busquets clearly got Thiago Motta sent off on 27 minutes for a mere handbrush to the face. With 63 minutes to find two goals against 10 men in defence, they held all the cards. But their supposed aces in the pack didn’t show – Zlatan Ibrahimovic was truly abysmal again, while Xavi couldn’t find that incisive pass to open Inter up. Lionel Messi showed flashes of genius, but what Barca really needed was a Plan B which they didn’t have until Pique was used as the last roll of the dice.

Congratulations not only to Inter, but also to Italian football which has suffered horribly since the Calciopoli scandal in 2006. For all the talk of crisis, Serie A could win its second Champions League in the last four years and third in the last eight years – more than the Spanish La Liga and more than the English Premier League. Now just imagine if there hadn’t been a crisis!

Keep up to date with all the latest Champions League news with Goal.com and join Goal.com USA's Facebook fan page!

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