LAS VEGAS – James Neal scored early in the first period of Game 2 to give the Vegas Golden Knights a 1-0 lead.
It gave the arena thoughts of a 2-0 lead before the Knights would hit the road to Washington DC.
But the Washington Capitals had other plans and erased the early deficit with three straight goals and won Game 2, 3-2.
Lars Eller struck once and had three points on the night and Braden Holtby made 37 saves including a spectacular stick stop late in the third as the gaping maw of the Caps’ cage was tantalizingly there for Vegas.
Holtby stopped an Alex Tuch opportunity after a brilliant pass across the slot almost ended with a 3-3 score.
“It was a great save,” Washington head coach Barry Trotz said. “You could see the emotion on our bench. Once he made that save, I knew we were going to win the game.”
Alex Ovechkin and Brooks Orpik also struck for the Caps who were not interested in heading back home down 0-2.
The Caps lost Evgeny Kuznetsov to an upper body injury early in the game after a hit from Brayden McNabb.
“It’s a tough break there, but I felt like we came together really as a team,” Washington center Nicklas Backstrom said. “We tried to play better than we did the first 10 minutes. We kept it simple. It’s all about commitment too. We blocked shots and we played for each other.”
After the Caps took the 3-1 lead in the middle frame, Shea Theodore ended the run of goals from Washington with a power play goal from the blue line.
For Orpik, it was his first goal in 220 games.
“I screamed, ears are still ringing,” the Caps’ T.J. Oshie said. “He’s one of those old-school pro guys. I’ve only played with three or four of them. He’s one of those guys, and to see him get rewarded on the scoresheet, it’s exciting.”
The Caps were deliberate throughout the game and exhibited some of the intensity they showed in the Conference Final series with the Tampa Bay Lightning.
“We feel comfortable at any point in a series. That’s one of the beautiful things of our group, but this is a tough place to win in Vegas and it’s shown throughout the League,” Holtby said. “To come away with a split, it’s good, but now we move forward. We need to take advantage of our own rink, our own familiarity, and focus on Game 3 because this game is gone now.”
After Neal scored to open the scoring there was a feeling in the building that fans were thinking sweep.
“Nobody said it’s going to be a 4-0 series,” Vegas’ Erik Haula said. “It’s going to be ups and downs. We’ve been here before. We’ve been good on the road. Just put this behind, learn from your mistakes, just try to do things better, and that’s it.”
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Marc-Andre Fleury made 23 saves in the loss.
“We didn’t play our best game, but I thought we had 39 shots and we still created a lot. It’s one of those games where Holtby played real well, he was probably the difference in the hockey game,” Vegas head coach Gerard Gallant said after the loss.
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