Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Goalies seek rebound
LAS VEGAS — MarcAndre Fleury and Braden Holtby have been two of the hottest goaltenders during the postseason.
Their duel between the pipes looked more like survival in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final as the Golden Knights outlasted the Capitals 6-4.
Fleury came into the series with a 1.68 goals-against average for Vegas with Holtby not far behind at 2.04. Giving up nine goals between them seemed unlikely but that’s exactly what happened Monday night as both goalies were screened relentlessly, caught out of position at times and left out to dry on occasion by defensemen trying to keep up with two swarming offenses.
For the Capitals, scoring against the Golden Knights was taking advantage of their defenders failing to clog the slots and Fleury making his own mistakes.
Brett Connolly’s redirect that went through defenseman Colin Miller’s legs in the first period caught Fleury overcommitting on Michal Kempny’s shot from the point.
Less than a minute later, Nicklas Backstrom backhanded a shot past Fleury, who couldn’t recover after sprawling to his right with T.J. Oshie coming around the back of the goal.
Fleury didn’t stand a chance against John Carlson, who scored an easy backhander after a beautiful feed from Oshie, who wrapped a pass around defenseman Shea Theodore across the slot. And while Tom Wilson got credit for the Capitals’ fourth goal, the puck slid into the net after Fleury kicked it in himself after getting caught under his skate.
“Obviously it’s not what was expected of both of us, CUP SCHEDULE | KNIGHTS LEAD SERIES 1-0 Golden Knights 6, Capitals 4 Wednesday in Las Vegas Saturday in Washington Monday in Washington June 7 in Las Vegas June 10 in Washington June 13 in Las Vegas or what I want,” said Fleury, who improved to 13-3 in the postseason. “It’s not going to go perfect every night. You just have got to brush it off, forget about it and try to stop the next one.”
Fleury stopped 24 shots and has now allowed four goals in four games in a single postseason for the first time — and he has given up at least four goals five times in 15 postseason games against the Capitals.
Holtby made 28 saves, but Game 1 was the second time he had allowed five goals this postseason (The Knights got their sixth goal on an emptynetter 8 p.m. NBCSN 8 p.m. NBCSN 8 p.m. NBC 8 p.m. NBC 8 p.m. NBC 8 p.m. NBC by Tomas Nosek).
“For me, I thought my puck-handling was not great tonight,” Holtby said. “I wasn’t recognizing the type of forecheck they were having, and I made the wrong decision on a few occasions. That’s just something that you go back, watch the video, see where there’s defaults at times to get the puck back in our team’s hands.”
Rebounds have continued to haunt Holtby, who fell to 12-7 in the playoffs.
Both goalies and their defenses have little time to turn things around. Game 2 is Wednesday night.