In Tampa Bay Friday night, the Washington Capitals continued their strong play with a 4-2 win over the Lightning in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final,
Braden Holtby made 19 saves to get the win as the Caps’ defense limited the Bolts’ chances.
The win gives the Caps home ice advantage in the series.
Alex Ovechkin had another solid performance for the Caps and posted a goal and two points on the night.
“We just realized we just have to play our way,” Ovechkin said. “It doesn’t matter which position we are, which round it is, and you can see the effort in the guys, starting from [Holtby] and everyone, I think. Everybody was all in and everybody was paying the price.”
Michal Kempny, Jay Beagle and Lars Eller also struck for goals as the Caps posted a 4-0 lead going into the third period.
Evgeny Kuznetsov and T.J. Oshie added two assists each in the win.
“We’re in the conference final and we just didn’t treat it that way,” Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said. “I’m not taking anything away from Washington. They came out and executed their game plan. They played simple, turned their breaks into power plays and capitalized on them. We didn’t. We didn’t earn our breaks.”
Ovechkin’s goal came on a long range shot from inside the blue line that was blur heading for the net.
“It feels like we are all in, and all in is kind of becoming our standard with our play,” Oshie said.
Steven Stamkos and Ondrej Palat scored in the third period but by then the outcome of the match was already decided.
“This group is having fun. They’re calm. They’ve got a really good work ethic. And really, we’re just trying to earn the right to keep playing and nothing more,” Caps head coach Barry Trotz said after the game. “When you have a real good group that likes to be around each other and have these moments and play in the playoffs, you don’t want those to go away.”
[WATCH: All Capitals vs. Lightning highlights | Complete Lightning vs. Capitals series coverage]
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 21 saves in the loss.
“Whatever we did tonight, we’ve got to do the exact opposite on Sunday. We didn’t play our game at all,” the Lightning’s Dan Girardi said. “They did, but we sure didn’t. They were on top of us. They gave us no time and space. They had a lot of O-zone time and we just couldn’t get through them and get a forecheck sustained. We just have to regroup and have a good start on Sunday.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.