In Toronto, the New York Islanders’ Semyon Varlamov made 23 saves to help defeat the Washington Capitals, 5-2, in Game 2 of their opening round series.
The Isles scored three times in the middle frame to erase a 0-1 deficit.
“We’re playing to our identity,” Islanders coach Barry Trotz said. “The two games have been a little bit different … there was a little more flow in this game. I just think that we’ve got a good, mature group that doesn’t get fazed.”
Nick Leddy, Matt Martin and Brock Nelson were the second period strikers for the Isles.
“Once we started getting pucks in behind them and playing to our identity, we started getting looks, we started getting chances and we were able to capitalize,” Martin said. “It doesn’t get any easier from here; they have a championship pedigree over there. It’s just going to get harder and harder from here, so we’ve got to be ready and we’ve got to stay true to our game as much as possible. Hopefully at the end of the day, that’s enough.”
Alex Ovechkin scored twice for the Caps.
“We know the system, we watch the video,” Ovechkin said. “We all know how to play against those kind of teams. [Like] I said, we have to play better. We have plenty of skills. We have plenty of character in our locker room. We’re going to take it game by game.
“Tomorrow, we’re going to watch the video, we’ll work on our mistakes, we’re going to forget this game and move on. It’s not over yet.”
Cal Clutterbuck redirected a shot from Pageau at 17:14 to make it 4-2.
“I liked our third period,” Trotz said. “You look at the strength down low, Anders Lee, who’s our captain, he kept the puck down there for about 30 seconds, and you’ve got Leo [Komarov] and Brass (Derick Brassard), that’s how you win. The guys are committed to that effort. … We didn’t back off. We just stayed to our game and we got the result we wanted.”
Anders Lee added an empty net goal to close out the scoring.
[WATCH: All Islanders vs. Capitals highlights]
Braden Holtby made 27 saves. in the loss.
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