Capitals within one win of hoisting Cup
With 6-2 rout of Golden Knights, Washington takes 3-1 stranglehold on Final heading back to Vegas
The pixie dust that has enveloped the Vegas Golden Knights’ inaugural season is just about gone, and the Washington Capitals are on the verge of finally capturing their long-elusive Stanley Cup.
Born in 1974, the Capitals are one win away from their first Cup after Monday’s 6-2 win over Vegas before a downright bonkers gathering in Capital One Arena. Evgeny Kuznetsov had four assists while T.J. Oshie and Nicklas Backstrom put together three-point games as the Caps won their third straight game in the series to take a 3-1 lead.
How significant is that? Teams with a 3-1 advantage in the Cup final have won 31 consecutive series and are 32-1 all-time since 1939. The lone loser was the 1942 Detroit Red Wings, who blew a 3-0 lead to Toronto.
The red-clad crowd partied all afternoon in the streets around the arena and the ones who made it inside the building pumped up the volume right from the opening faceoff. They spent the last three minutes roaring, “We want the Cup.”
“The town is crazy right now,” captain Alex Ovechkin said after the morning skate, foreshadowing the wild scene inside the building and the roars of thousands outside after the game. “Everybody talking about Caps and playoffs. It’s a pretty special moment for the town, for organization, for us.”
“That’s what you play for,” forward Tom Wilson said of approaching a clincher.
“You use it for emotion you use it to drive you forward and that’s it. You don’t think too far ahead. That’s what you’re playing for.”
The Golden Knights, dealing with their first losing streak of the postseason, came out flying and had several opportunities to score. But this game turned just 4½ minutes into the first period as James Neal looked like he had a sure goal with a wideopen net to the right of Brayden Holtby. Neal fired across the crease and Holtby extended his paddle, much like he did in robbing Alex Tuch in the final minute of Game 2.
This time, Holtby missed. But lady luck was on his side anyway as the puck clanked off the right goalpost and bounded away, keeping the game scoreless.
“It probably changes the game. It’s probably a different game after that,” Neal said. “It’s tough. It’s a great play... I had a wide-open net, and then I just hit the post. Definitely one I want to have back.”
Said Holtby: “To be honest, I thought it was in from my angle. And somehow it didn’t go in.”
Just over five minutes later, Oshie opened the scoring on a power play by taking a Kuznetsov rebound, kicking the puck up to his stick and depositing it into an empty net behind Marc-Andre Fleury.
The Caps broke things open late in the first period. Wilson scored at 16:26 after a sneaky pass to the slot from Evgeny Kuznetsov and Devante Smith-Pelly made it 3-0 with 21 seconds left by pounding home a Matt Niskanen rebound.
It was more of the same in the second period. The Golden Knights hit a couple posts and couldn’t score. Meanwhile, the Caps pushed ahead 4-0 on John Carlson’s one-timer with Neal in the penalty box for slashing.
The Capitals entered the game third in the NHL on the power play in the postseason at 27.6 percent but were only 1-for7 in this series over the first two games before going 3-for-4 on Monday.
Neal finally got Vegas on the board at 5:43 of the third period. Reilly Smith added a backhand with 7:35 to go to give Vegas a brief glimmer of hope but Michal Kempny’s one-timer with 6:21 left gave the Caps a three-goal cushion and ended any hopes of a comeback. Brett Connolly’s power-play tally with 1:09 left was the coup de grace.
It’s been a suddenly frustrating run for the Golden Knights, who scored only three goals in the two games here and have given up 16 goals in the series. And Fleury was unable to bail them out like he has in earlier rounds. He has a 4.09 goalsagainst average and .816 save percentage in the series – after entering the final at 1.68 and .947 for the first three rounds of the playoffs.
Kuznetsov’s four assists gave him an NHL-leading 31 points in the playoffs, making him just the fifth player in the last 20 years to hit 30. The last one was San Jose’s Logan Couture, who had 30 two years ago, as the Sharks went to Game 6 of the final before losing to Pittsburgh.
Is the difference in the series that Vegas is a well-balanced skilled team, but Washington is a well-balanced skilled team that has the added element of stars such Ovechkin, Kuznetsov and Carlson?
In the tighter-checking Stanley Cup Final, the Golden Knights have not been able to match the Capitals’ ability to make the big plays when needed most.
(Buffalo News/TNS)