First Period
The teams went through their early-game feeling out period,
but it didn’t last all that long. The
Capitals opened the scoring in the eighth minute when Michal Kempny collected
the puck at the left point, adjusted his position for a better shooting lane,
and then snapped a shot that sailed past the combined screens of Tom Wilson and
Alex Ovechkin, past goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy and into the top corner of the
net to give the Caps a 1-0 lead.
That might have been it for the scoring but for a bizarre
last ten seconds of the period. With the
Lightning on a power play, it appeared as if they tied the game on a goal
Nikita Kucherov, but the goal was disallowed for a too-many-men penalty with
eight seconds left in the frame. On the
ensuing faceoff to Vasilevskiy’s left, T.J. Oshie won the draw to Evgeny
Kuznetsov, who fed the puck across to Alex Ovechkin in the middle. Ovechkin one-timed the puck past Vasilevskiy,
and the Caps were up, 2-0, with 2.9 seconds left in the period
Numbers not to like in the first period…
- The Caps had 11 blocked shots. Makes that two shots on goal allowed a little less impressive in a shot attempts context.
- Capitals not named “Beagle” were 4-for-15 on faceoffs
Second Period
The Lightning might be forgiven for being a bit
shell-shocked after the events at the end of the first period, and they seemed
to be in a daze when the second period opened.
The Caps took advantage of sluggish defense and a bit of luck when Dmitry
Orlov did his little shake-and-bake move at the top of the right wing circle to
give himself some open ice. He fed the
puck low to Brett Connolly, who shanked a shot from low in the left wing
circle. The puck slid slowly through to
the crease where Jay Beagle backhanded it under the left pad of Vasilevskiy,
and the Caps were up, 3-0, just 2:40 into the period.
Barely four minutes later, the Caps added another goal. With the Caps back on a power play, the Caps
worked the puck clockwise around the top of the offensive zone, from Kuznetsov
to John Carlson to Ovechkin in the left wing circle. Ovechkin’s one-timer was muffled, but the
puck leaked out to the top of the crease where Lars Eller pounced, swatting the
puck past a diving Vasilevskiy, and it was 4-0, 6:42 into the period.
That is where the teams ended after 40 minutes.
Third Period
Louis Domingue took over in the Lightning net for the final
20 minutes, but the danger in any game like this for the team getting out to
the big lead is taking their foot off the gas.
Washington fell into the trap.
Tampa Bay dominated and converted a power play 3:45 into the period,
Steven Stamkos pinching down the weak side and one-timing a feed from Nikita
Kucherov behind goalie Braden Holtby to make it 4-1.
Tampa made things interesting less than ten minutes later
when Ondrej Palat skated down the left side and snapped a shot past Holtby on
the short side inside the post, pulling the Caps within 4-2 at the 13:03 mark.
That would be as close as the Lightning could get, though,
and the Caps erased the Tampa Bay home ice advantage with a 4-2 Game 1 win.
Other stuff…
-- The Caps have not lacked for offense in the
postseason. This was the eighth time in
13 games that they recorded four or more goals.
-- Nicklas Backstrom was held out of this game with his
upper-body injury, and the other top scorers filled the gap. Alex Ovechkin (goal, assist), T.J. Oshie (two
assists), and Evgeny Kuznetsov (two assists) were the multiple point getters
for the Caps.
-- Michal Kempny’s goal was his first career playoff goal
and his first point in the postseason since he recorded an assist (his first
NHL career playoff point) in a 4-3 Caps win in Game 5 against Columbus in the
first round.
-- The Caps got points from three defensemen – Kempny (goal),
Dmitry Orlov (assist) and John Carlson (assist).
-- Carlson’s assist was his 12th point of the
postseason, tying the franchise record for defensemen in a postseason (Kevin
Hatcher and Scott Stevens in 1988 and Carlson in 2016).
-- Alex Chiasson took two penalties, the first two he has
taken in the postseason.
-- Anybody have Jakub Vrana leading the team with five shots
on goal? Anybody?
-- After a rather grisly first period in the faceoff circle
in which the Caps went 7-for-18 (38.9 percent), they went 20-for-32 (62.5
percent) over the last 40 minutes.
-- When the Lighting replaced starting goalie Andrei
Vasilevskiy with Louis Domingue to start the third period, it marked the first
time in the postseason that the Caps chased a starting goaltender.
-- Tampa Bay allowed a power play goal (two, in fact) for
the eighth time in 11 postseason games.
In the end…
There are two bedrock ideas to take away from this
game. First, it is a 60 minute game, and
while the Caps were utterly dominant in the first 40 minutes (aided by a brain
lock by Tampa Bay to find themselves with too many men on the ice to negate a
tying goal late in the first period), they took their foot off the gas in the
third period. That made for a more
interesting game than folks might have thought would be the case after those
first 40 minutes. It should not be
forgotten.
The other thing is, it is “first to four,” not “first to
one.” This is a game to build on, not
savor. There are things to correct, and
there is much work yet to be done. After
all, Tampa Bay did drop Game 1 against Boston in the first round and roared
back to sweep the next four contests. The Caps did dominate in a way that
Boston did not in that second round Game 1, but Tampa remains a formidable
obstacle to the Caps’ ambition.
But the Caps did do what they had to do – overcome the
absence of Nicklas Backstrom to put together a fine overall effort and take the
home ice advantage from the Lightning.
Not that such an advantage means much, but it is a win on the road to four
that the Lightning do not have. And that
was the object of tonight’s exercise.
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