Capitals romp in Finals rematch
WASHINGTON — Evgeny Kuznetsov continued his dominance against the Vegas Golden Knights, scoring a goal and assisting on three more as part of a 5-2 Washington Capitals victory Wednesday night in a rematch of last season’s Stanley Cup Final.
Kuznetsov assisted on two goals by Alex Ovechkin and one by Nicklas Backstrom, and Kuznetsov scored on the power play. The leading scorer in the Cup Final with eight points in five games, Kuznetsov has seven points through the defending champions’ first three games of the regular season.
“If you play with the good players, you’re always gonna get points,” Kuznetsov said after one of the best allaround games of his career. “It’s just about have fun every night you go out there. If you don’t have fun and you don’t want to enjoy, you don’t want to play hockey, you should be retired. But you can see we always have fun.”
Coming off a 49-goal season and a Conn Smythe Trophy, Ovechkin has four goals in three games. The 610th and 611th goals of his career put him in sole possession of 17th on the NHL’s career list, passing Bobby Hull.
Braden Holtby, who made “the save” with his stick in Game 2 of the Final, stopped 29 of 31 shots and bailed out his teammates during an especially sloppy second period. Holtby allowed goals to Cody Eakin in the second period and Reilly Smith in the third.
Vegas goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, who wanted to start this game instead of facing his former team in Pittsburgh tonight, allowed four goals on 28 shots. His teammates hit the post a handful of times and went 0-for-3 on the power play and are 0-for-11 this season.
“I think just a few mistakes here there, including myself and guys in our defensive zone maybe,” Fleury said. “But if we clean that up, we’ll be in good shape.”
The Golden Knights fell to 1-3-0 at the beginning of their second season. They didn’t lose their third game in their inaugural season until Halloween when they started 8-3-0.
FLYERS 7, SENATORS 4: In Ottawa, Jakub Voracek and Scott Laughton scored two goals apiece as Philadelphia rebounded from an embarrassing loss to beat Ottawa.
Sean Couturier, Robert Hagg and Claude Giroux also scored for the Flyers, who were coming off an 8-2 loss to the San Jose Sharks in their home opener a night earlier. Calvin Pickard stopped 31 shots.
Brady Tkachuk scored his first NHL goal and finished with two goals and an assist for Ottawa. Maxime Lajoie also had two goals and an assist for the Senators, who were playing the first of a five-game homestand.
Craig Anderson made 38 saves, but the Flyers victimized him with four goals through two periods before they pulled away in the third.
Philadelphia took the lead for good with 4:15 remaining in the second period when Thomas Chabot missed an opportunity to clear the puck down low and Laughton beat Anderson off a backhand.
COYOTES 3, DUCKS 2 (SO): In Anaheim, Calif, , Nick Cousins scored in the first round of the shootout to lead Arizona to a victory over Anaheim.
It was the Coyotes’ first win of the year after being shut out in its initial two games.