WASHINGTON, DC – The Washington Capitals returned home to the Verizon Center for their first Stanley Cup Final game in 18 years.
And they made it a memorable experience with only blemish on the night in a 3-1 win over the Vegas Golden Knights and a 2-1 series lead.
Game 3 opened with a tight back and forth effort from both clubs in the opening period that ended in a scoreless tie.
Alex Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov got the Caps on the board in the middle frame with a pair of goals and a 2-0 lead.
“The city is excited, fans are excited, but it’s only two [wins],” Ovechkin said. “We just have to move forward and don’t think about it too much.”
The pair of strikes punctuated a dominating effort from the Caps who have not looked intimidated by the Knights in the series despite losing Game 1.
Vegas looked pliant most of the night with little push back.
“You can live with the losses if you’re just not getting the bounces, but the way we played isn’t good enough for this time of year,” Vegas forward Ryan Reaves said.
The Knights’ only goal came in the third period on a mistake from Caps goalie Braden Holtby who looked to clear the puck up ice instead of around the boards.
The puck ticked off a pressuring Knight forward to Tomas Nosek who potted the goal in an vacated net.
“It’s obviously fun for us to see the city like this and bring that kind of energy and enjoyment. The fans have been phenomenal,” Holtby said after the game. “But in saying that, our group as professionals, you get more out of making that sacrifice so everyone can enjoy it. So we’re just putting our head down, focusing on Game 4 to keep working toward that big goal.”
Holtby had 21 saves in the win.
Devante Smith-Pelly scored later in the third period to regain the two-goal lead and the final score of 3-1.
Smith-Pelly atoned for an early miscue in the game when he took an ill-advised penalty; he cleared a dangerous puck out of the zone and raced down ice to take a pass form Shea Theodore and wristed the puck in for the goal.
“I thought it was sort of the right thing in a playoff game, our first victory in the Final at home, that Alex would score the first goal,” Caps head coach Barry Trotz said. “I thought that was a little bit of poetic justice, if you will, for all the tough times.”
[WATCH: All Golden Knights vs. Capitals highlights | Complete Golden Knights vs. Capitals series coverage]
Marc-Andre Fleury made 23 saves in the loss.
Vegas has lost back-to-back games for the first time in the post season.
“It doesn’t mean we’re out of it,” Fleury said. “We still have a lot of minutes to be played, a lot of periods. Got a lot of time to put ourselves back in the series.”
Game 4 is in Washington on Monday night.
“We need to have some poise with the puck. We’ve got to make the right plays. We’ve got to make it easier on each other. Once we made a play, we’re rushing the next one. We’ve got to have some poise and settle down a little bit. We’ve got to get back to what’s made us successful,” the Golden Knights James Neal said after the loss.
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