First Period
The teams traded chances, but pucks could not find their way
into the back of the net. Alex Ovechkin
had a glorious chance on an Evgeny Kuznetsov feed on a 2-on-1, but goalie
Marc-Andre Fleury got across the crease in time to get his left arm on the puck
and redirect it over the net. Chandler Stephenson had a goal washed out on a
goalie interference penalty taken by Devante Smith-Pelly, who knocked Fleury
over as the shot was sailing by. At the
other end, Vegas hit the post behind goalie Braden Holtby twice, both shots
ricocheting out. At the end of 20
minutes, though, there were zeroes on either side of the scoreboard.
Odd numbers… The Golden Knights had 15 of their shots
blocked…the Caps won 13 of 18 draws (72.2 percent)…Matt Niskanen and Dmitry
Orlov logged more than eight minutes in ice time apiece (8:58 and 8:28,
respectively)…this is the third Stanley Cup final game played on home ice by
the Caps; they have yet to score a first period goal.
Second Period
It took the Caps just 70 seconds to break the scoreless
tie. It was the product of relentless
effort by the Caps, starting with John Carlson stopping the puck in the
offensive zone just inside the Vegas blue line.
He nudged the puck down to Evgeny Kuznetsov, who circled out and around
the right wing circle before wristing a shot from the high slot. John Carlson got his stick on it to redirect
the puck, but Fleury kicked it out to his left.
Tom Wilson got to the loose puck in the corner and snapped it to the
front of the net. The puck caromed out
to the slot, where Kuznetsov was filling back in, but his shot was muffled in
front. The puck pinballed out to Fleury’s
right where Alex Ovechkin was dueling with Brayden McNabb. Ovechkin dove over McNabb to get his stick on
the puck and lifted a backhand while falling that sailed into the open side of
the net, giving the Caps the 1-0 lead.
The Caps doubled their lead in the 13th
minute. It started with little
things. Jay Beagle fought David Perron
off the puck at the left wing wall. T.J.
Oshie stopped the loose puck with his skate, and then he dove out to poke it along
before Shea Theodore could get to it.
Jay Beagle picked it up in the neutral zone and fed Kuznetsov on his
right. Kuznetsov skated into the
offensive zone, Beagle filling in the middle, and Dmitry Orlov joining in to
make it a 3-on-1. Kuznetsov looked pass,
but he snapped a shot that snuck between Fleury’s right arm and his body and
into the far side of the net to make it 2-0, 12:50 into the period.
Third Period
There is keeping your foot on the gas, there is playing
prevent defense, and there is whatever that was that Braden Holtby was doing
early in the final period. Playing the puck
behind his own net, he held it on his backhand looking for an escape
route. Of all available to him, he
dialed up “pass it through the middle.”
Bad choice. Pierre-Edouard
Bellemare got his stick on the attempted clear and slowed it down enough for
Tomas Nosek to jump in and fire it into the vacated net to make it 2-1 just
3:29 into the period.
Ten minutes later, the Caps restored the two-goal lead. Shea Theodore, who had a brutal game for the
Golden Knights, had the puck in his own end and was backing off a forecheck by
Jay Beagle into the corner to the left of Fleury. He lost control of the puck, and his backward
momentum kept him from gathering it back.
Beagle’s forward momentum carried him to the loose puck, and from the
corner he backhanded a pass into the middle where Devante Smith-Pelly was
filling in. Smith-Pelly took the puck in stride and skated in deep. He opened the blade of his stick and wristed
a shot over Fleury’s glove, and the Caps had a 3-1 lead 13:53 into the period.
The Caps locked things up after that, denying Vegas many
opportunities, even after the Golden Knights pulled Fleury with almost three
minutes left in regulation. The Caps
skated off with the 3-1 lead, taking a 2-1 lead in games.
Other stuff…
-- June 2, 2018… the first Stanley Cup finals win for the
Washington Capitals on home ice, 20 years to the day since they lost their
first ever Stanley Cup playoff game played at home in June, a 2-1 loss to the
Buffalo Sabres in Game 5 of their series.
The Caps went on to win that series in the next game to send them to
their first Stanley Cup final.
-- Alex Ovechkin’s goal was his 14th of this
postseason, tying the franchise record for goals in a single postseason (John
Druce set the record in 1990). He is now
just one goal behind the most scored in a single postseason in the
post-2005-2006 era. Sidney Crosby had 15
goals for the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2009.
-- Evgeny Kuznetsov had a goal and an assist to give him points in 12
of his last 13 postseason games. The
only one in that stretch in which he did not was in Game 2 of this series, when
he skated just 4:26 before leaving with an injury.
-- Jay Beagle had a pair of assists, his second multi-point
game of this postseason (two assists in the series-clinching game against Columbus
in the first round) and third of his career.
-- Doing the dirty work… the Caps had 38 credited hits to 31
for Vegas, 26 blocked shots (Vegas had only 22 shots on goal), and won 39 of 62
faceoffs (62.9 percent).
-- Sixteen of 18 skaters were credited with hits (Dmitry
Orlov and Nicklas Backstrom were not).
No Capital was under 50 percent on draws (Tom Wilson split the two
faceoffs he took).
-- Devante Smith-Pelly’s goal was his fifth of this
postseason, tying his career high (set in 2014 with Anaheim). His six points in
this postseason are a career high.
-- John Carlson led the team with 13 shot attempts (six on
goal, also a team high).
-- The Caps held the Golden Knights without a power play
goal for the first time in this series, but holding them to two power plays had
something to do with that, too. It was
the sixth time in seven games that the Caps faced two or fewer opponent power
plays.
-- A light workload has not been a friend to Braden Holtby
in his postseason career. Coming into this game, he
had a win-loss record of 18-20 in the playoffs when facing fewer than 30 shots (24-17 when
facing at least 30 shots). He won facing
only 22 shots in this game.
In the end…
The Caps are half-way home.
The important part of that sentence is “half-way.” There is much work yet to do, and Vegas
certainly will be playing with more desperation trying to win back home-ice
advantage on Monday night. But one
cannot help but get the feeling that the Caps are starting to impose their will
on this series. Theirs was the more
effective forecheck in Games 2 and 3.
Theirs was the more balanced and effective offense; their special teams
have been just a bit more special.
The cloud that hangs over the Caps now is another
injury. Brooks Orpik sat out the last
7:35 of the game, his last shift lasting only eight seconds. He was the victim of a heavy hit by James
Neal earlier in the game that left him dazed.
The margins at this level of play are so thin that his absence, even as
a third-pair defenseman, could be significant.
But the Caps have two days to sort this out before they try to take a stranglehold
on the series in two days.
