Knights look to prevent Caps’ odd-man rushes

For the Golden Knights, the odds were not in their favor in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final.

The Washington Capitals had numerous odd-man rushes during a

3-2 win to tie the series heading into Game 3 Saturday at Capital Bank Arena.

“We just gotta make sure we don’t turn those pucks over,” Knights forward David Perron said Friday after practice. “Whether it’s going with speed or chipping everything in — really put pressure on their defensemen a little bit more. If we do chip it in, we have to make sure we have at least one guy going on the puck with full speed.

“We made some mistakes that we don’t make too often. Whether it’s created by their presence or pressure, whatever it is. We made too many of them.”

Perron said the way the Capitals set up their defense gives them opportunities to quickly go the other way with numbers.

“I feel like they hang back a little bit behind our guys,” he said. “They turn it around real quick. It’s a 2-on-1. It’s a 3-on-1.

“Me, (James Neal) and (Erik Haula) were watching our shifts, and at that time we were watching the game, it was 7-1 odd-man rushes. It was very in their favor. That’s something we can’t have for sure. It’s gotta be a lot more even.”

Defenseman Deryk Engelland said: “I think the first 10, 12 minutes of the game we played simple and I think we got away from that. We started turning pucks over and we know they’re a great transition team. We’ve got to just keep the game simple, keep playing the way that’s had us successful all year.”

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