Caps Take Opener with Three in Third

Over the course of the 2021-22 regular season, the Presidents' Trophy-winning Florida Panthers were - by far - the NHL's best team at coming back to win when trailing after 40 minutes of play. But in Tuesday night's Game 1 of the first-round Stanley Cup Playoff series between the Capitals and the Panthers, it was Washington that rallied to win by a 4-2 count with a trio of third-period tallies.

T.J. Oshie scored on a typically sublime feed from Nicklas Backstrom at 10:37 of the third, snapping a 2-2 tie and putting the Caps on top. Oshie's goal came less than three minutes after Evgeny Kuznetsov tied it on a breakaway, and Lars Eller sealed the deal late with an empty-net goal from distance.
The Caps' third-period outburst enabled Vitek Vanecek to claim his first career Stanley Cup playoff victory with a 30-save night in the Washington nets.
"We liked the game we were playing the whole night," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "We just felt like if we stuck to it, stuck with it, played good defense, that the offensive chances would keep coming, and eventually we could crack it."
Washington drew a pair of early calls on the Panthers in the first period, leading to a stretch of 5-on-3 hockey for the Capitals, and ultimately, to the game's first goal just as the second of those penalties expired.
Tom Wilson drew a hi-sticking call on former Caps defenseman Radko Gudas in the game's first minute, and when MacKenzie Weegar was busted for delay of game (smothering the puck) just 59 seconds later, the Caps were suddenly looking at a two-man advantage for 61 seconds.
During that span, the Caps put four shots on net, they had one blocked and another try missed the mark. But when Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky stopped the last of those four shots - an Anthony Mantha shot from above the right circle - he kicked the rebound right to Wilson, who buried it for a 1-0 Washington lead at 3:48.

Unfortunately for the Caps, Wilson left the game later in the first period and did not return; he is day-to-day with a lower body injury.
The Caps' power play poured three more shots on Bobrovsky - and had four more blocked - later in the first frame. After killing off the third Washington power play of the first, the Panthers evened the score late in the period.
Sam Bennett pulled a loose puck out of a battle for it in the corner of his own zone, then carried it up ice. As he reached the Washington line, he cut to the middle. From between and just above the circles, he launched a wrist shot between the two Caps defenders and past Vanecek to square the score at 1-1 at 17:55 of the first.
Early in the second, the Panthers took the lead. After the Caps iced the puck, Claude Giroux won a left dot draw, and the puck came to Brandon Montour on the weak side. Montour had all the time and space needed to tee up a drive from the top of the right circle, and Vanecek managed to shoulder that shot aside. But Giroux got a stick on the rebound and directed it in at 43 seconds of the middle period, five seconds after the face-off.
The Caps continued to generate some good looks and strong chances throughout the second, but their finish was lacking, and Bobrovsky made some strong stops as well. The Capitals also kept playing well in all three zones, keeping the Panthers from getting speed through the neutral zone and consistently getting out of their own end without incident, using communal exits when necessary.
In a fine example of Washington's neutral zone sturdiness, the Caps evened the score just ahead of the midpoint of the third. Weegar galloped out from behind his own net, skating swiftly toward his own blueline, only to encounter an Alex Ovechkin pokecheck. Realizing he was in trouble, Weegar kept Ovechkin from getting to the loose puck and taking off on a breakaway, only to watch helplessly as Kuznetsov breezed in and took the breakaway for himself, beating Bobrovsky with a wrist shot to the shelf to forge a 2-2 tie at 8:14.

"I look at [Bobrovsky] a little bit," recounts Kuznetsov, "and things happen quick over there in these situations. You probably want to use your best moment, and I saw the low blocker. It hit him, and then went into the net. The hockey gods was a little bit on my side, and I have to be grateful for that."
That set the stage for Oshie's heroics. After Florida misfired on a cross-ice feed in neutral ice, Dmitry Orlov quickly transitioned the Caps with a nifty indirect feed to Backstrom at the Florida line. As Oshie zipped past a stationary Giroux, Backstrom threaded a feed around Weegar, and Oshie redirected it home, driving to the net.

"It looked like it was going to be a 2-on-2 right away," says Oshie. "I was able to get a step on [Giroux]; I'm not sure who was over there. And in typical Nicky fashion, he sauces it through a guy's legs, right on my tape. I just redirected it, didn't see it go in, so he had to come tell me that we scored. But it's always nice to get that go-ahead goal in the third period. It was a great play by Nick."
Washington played some strong road hockey thereafter, especially late in the third when the Panthers were looking to get possession in Washington ice so they could pull Bobrovsky for an extra attacker. The Caps limited the Cats to just five shots after the Oshie goal, most of them from distance. With 48.2 seconds left, Eller sealed the deal with a shot to the empty net from inside the Washington line.
"Well, I think our execution could be a little better," says Panthers interim coach Andrew Brunette. "I thought we were a little sloppy; I don't know if it was a little bit of nerves played an effect, or pressure. We didn't handle ourselves completely correctly, and a lot of credit to [the Caps]. They played a really good road game. They did what they had to do on the road, and we made some mistakes near the end of the game."
Game 2 is here in South Florida on Thursday.