Stanley Cup

Goalie Braden Holtby’s playoff dominance for Washington goes beyond “The Save.”

ARLINGTON, Va. — Alex Ovechkin covered his eyes with his gloved hands in disbelief. Barry Trotz hid his disbelief inside.

Chandler Stephenson had the perfect view and didn’t like the odds. The net was wide open and Braden Holtby reached his stick across and stopped Alex Tuch’s shot in the final minutes to save the game.

“I thought, ‘Oh, no, no, no,’ ” Stephenson said. “And then his paddle was there and he made the save, and I just couldn’t believe it.”

Holtby’s unbelievable move might go down as one of the most important moments in Stanley Cup Final history. It allowed the Capitals to even the series against the Golden Knights and served as further evidence of Holtby’s dominant playoff run.

Most of the buzz going into the finals surrounded Knights goaltender MarcAndre Fleury, a Conn Smythe favorite. But Holtby stole the show in making 37 saves in Game 2 and returned to his career-long playoff dominance after allowing five goals on 33 shots in a Game 1 that was far from goalie-friendly. It’s the kind of play his Caps teammates have come to expect this time of year.

“The guy’s just a machine,” defenseman Matt Niskanen said. “Boy, has he been good. Making the saves that he’s supposed to make look really routine and he’s made some game changers — none better than the one with a couple minutes left in Game 2.” Holtby is not impressed. Trotz has watched “the save” a handful of times, and Holtby has analyzed it but believes “there’s a lot more saves that I’ve made even these two games that I like a lot more than that one.” The 2016 Vezina Trophy winner is far more worried about how to not need to make that desperate of a stop in Game 3 Saturday night and beyond.

“You hope that next time you get more of your body behind it and give it less chance of going in,” Holtby said Friday.

The 28-year-old doesn’t make saves on hope. Since he made his NHL playoff debut as a rookie in 2012, Holtby has a 2.04 goalsagainst average and .929 save percentage — fourthand second-best all-time among goalies with at least 50 games of experience.

In other words, Holtby is no one-save pony. In these playoffs, he’s 13-7 with a 2.19 GAA and .921 save percentage since replacing Philipp Grubauer in Game 2 of the first round.

“Thank God he’s our goalie,” Ovechkin said. “He’s over there when we need him.”

Holtby has done a spectacular job of not only limiting goals but making almost every save on shots he has been able to see. .

“He steps up in the big moments,” defenseman Christian Djoos said.