First Period
As expected, behind two games to one, Vegas came out hard
and fast. Getting a power play less than
four minutes into the game did not help the Caps’ fortunes, but despite an 11-2
advantage in shot attempts, that power play in the first seven minutes, and two
shots off the post behind goalie Braden Holtby, the Caps and Golden Knights
remained scoreless.
Then, it was Vegas’ turn to kill a penalty. It did not go well for the visitors. With Colin Miller off on a tripping call,
Evgeny Kuznetsov settled a pass from Nicklas Backstrom and worked the puck low
to the right of goalie Marc-Andre Fleury.
Kuznetsov’s shot was turned aside by Fleury, but into open ice to his
left. T.J. Oshie filled the space,
settled the puck with his skate, and snapped a shot over Fleury’s left pad to
give the Caps a 1-0 lead, 9:54 into the period.
The Caps added a goal late in the period. Off a faceoff to Fleury’s right, defensemen
Deryk Engelland took control of the puck, but it was knocked off his stick at
the far edge of the faceoff circle. Tom
Wilson picked it up and dropped it off to Kuznetsov circling low around the
outside of the faceoff circle. As
Kuznetsov was moving around the circle, Wilson curled to the front of the
net. Kuznetsov fed Wilson between the
hash marks, and Wilson snapped a shot past Fleury’s left pad, and it was 2-0,
Caps, at the 16:26 mark.
That would have been quite an advantage for the Caps going
into the first intermission, but they added to the lead in the last minute. Devante Smith-Pelly started the play by
settling an attempted clear just inside the Vegas blue line. He played the puck
along the wall to Alex Ovechkin, who sent the puck across to Matt Niskanen at
the right point. Niskanen’s shot was
muffled by the stick of William Karlsson into the feet of Smith-Pelly heading
for the net. Smith-Pelly kicked the puck
to his stick and roofed a shot under the crossbar to make it 3-0 with just 20.5
seconds left in the frame.
Odd Numbers… Vegas had a 25-13 edge in shot attempts (11-11
in shots on goal).
Second Period
Vegas came out charging again to start a period, but they
once more could get nothing to show for it.
Two power plays in the first then minutes yielded nothing, and it had
the effect to swing momentum to the Capitals’ side of the ice once more. The Caps made the Knights pay for their lack
of return on early investments in effort with a power play strike late in the
period.
James Neal took an ill-advised slashing penalty with 5:15
left in the period. With the man
advantage, John Carlson took possession of the puck in the corner and
backhanded it behind the Vegas net to Nicklas Backstrom. The puck came through Backstrom, but was
collected by T.J. Oshie who stepped out from the goal line and swept the puck
to the right wing wall. There, Evgeny
Kuznetsov took control and sent the puck back across to Carlson, who one-timed
a shot from the left wing faceoff dot off the far post and behind Fleury to
make it 4-0, 15:23 into the period.
Odd Numbers… Vegas out-shot the Caps, 11-5 in the period and
had a 25-12 edge in shot attempts.
Third Period
For the Caps, the task was to get through the last 20
minutes without giving Vegas any reason to think they could get back into the
contest. They had a chance to do that
with a power play opportunity early in the period, but they could not
convert. Vegas would get their own power
play chance just after the Caps’ power play expired, and while they could not
convert their chance, they did get on the board just after the penalty to
Evgeny Kuznetsov expired. James Neal
snapped a shot under Holtby’s right arm from close quarters and under the
crossbar to make it 4-1, 5:43 into the period.
Vegas made it a bit more interesting as the clock wound down
under ten minutes in the period. Brett
Connolly was unable to clear the puck up the boards and out of the defensive
zone for the Caps, and it ended up being a chance for Reilly Smith, who was in
deep to Holtby’s left. Smith backhanded
the puck under the crossbar on the short side to make it 4-2, 12:26 into the
period.
The Caps got it back just over a minute later. With both teams short a man (Ryan Reaves for
Vegas, Tom Wilson for the Caps on coincidental roughing minors), Nicklas
Backstrom took advantage of the extra space on the ice to thread a pass from
the left wing circle across to Michal Kempny for a one-timer that beat Fleury
before he could scramble across the crease.
The Caps had their three-goal lead back at 5-2, 13:39 into the period.
Brett Connolly added a power play goal late when he walked out to the slot from the left wing faceoff circle and rifled a shot through a maze of players past Fleury's blocker for the final 6-2 score.
Brett Connolly added a power play goal late when he walked out to the slot from the left wing faceoff circle and rifled a shot through a maze of players past Fleury's blocker for the final 6-2 score.
Other stuff…
-- When Evgeny Kuznetsov recorded his third assist of the
game (all primary assists) on the John Carlson power play goal, he became the
first player in Capitals history to record 30 points in a single postseason. He finished with four assists, the third
player in team history to accomplish that feat in a playoff game (Scott Stevens against the
Devils in 1988 and Andrei Nikolishin against Buffalo in 1998; it was the first
time it was done on home ice). It was
the first time a player recorded four assists in a Cup final since Joe Sakic
had four assists in an 8-1 Game 2 win over the Florida Panthers in 1996.
-- T.J. Oshie (1-2-3) recorded his sixth multi-point game of
this postseason and second in this series (he had two assists in the Caps’ 6-4
loss in Game 1). It was his first
three-point game of the playoffs.
-- Nicklas Backstrom had three assists, his seventh
multi-point game of the postseason and 25th of his playoff career. It was the third time he had three assists in
a playoff game and first on home ice.
-- The Caps went 3-for-5 on the power play, the first time
they recorded three power play goals in a single game since Game 2 against
Columbus in the first round.
-- As in Game 3, the Caps had a huge edge in blocked shots,
blocking 24 shots to eight for Vegas.
-- On the other hand, Vegas had a 30-23 edge in shots on
goal at game’s end and a 71-41 edge in shot attempts.
-- Every Vegas player was credited with at least one hit and
had a 39-29 edge.
-- Brooks Orpik threw “box cars” in the "grittership" department … six credited hits, six
blocked shots in 17:04 of ice time.
-- “Three” is a magic number for both teams in this
postseason. Both clubs came into this
game with a 10-0 record when allowing two or fewer goals. First to three seemed likely to win, and it
was the Caps who got there.
-- Braden Holtby stopped 28 of 30 shots, bringing his
three-game total to 86 saves on 91 shots (.945 save percentage). At the other end, Marc-Andre Fleury stopped
17 of 23 shots. He is 87-for-103 over
the four games of this series (.845).
In the end…
It started in October with a 5-4 Gimmick win against Ottawa,
and it now comes down to one more win to reach the promised land for the first
time in team history. That last win,
what would be the 65th of the season for the Caps, will no doubt be
the hardest of all to secure. But in
this game the Caps sent a clear message that they will have to be beaten. They are not playing as if they are going to
be giving anything away. And at the end
of this contest, Vegas looked as if they had nothing left in the tank to take
anything away from the Caps. They will
likely be well-supported by their fans at T-Mobile Arena on Thursday, but one
has to wonder if that is going to be enough.
For the first time since the franchise was born, Caps fans can hope that
what they saw tonight was the last game on home ice this season. And while there is still work to be done, the
team gave every indication that it would be just that.
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