In Toronto, the New York Islanders’ Mathew Barzal scored at 4:28 of extra time to defeat the Washington Capitals, 2-1, and put a 3-0 clamp on the series on Sunday afternoon.
“I run that play a little bit in practice, even in games, just try to sneak behind the defense a little bit,” Barzal said. “[You have] to time it perfectly just on the blue line. Great heads-up play by [Eberle], great touch on the pass. I’ve had that play a few times this year and I’ve looked five-hole, looked short side. I decided to take this one far post and it paid off.”
Semyon Varlamov made 22 saves to get the win.
“Your goalie’s your eraser,” Isles head coach Barry Trotz said. “Sometimes as a coach or a team, your goaltender can erase all your mistakes, and we made a couple of mistakes there, and [Varlamov] erased it. Getting it for him, I’ll say it’s good process where you want to reward your goalie for bailing you out, and you can bail him out with a win when you get that opportunity.”
Evgeny Kuznetsov was the Caps’ lone goal scorer.
“I think just get the first game and see where it takes us. It’s doable,” the Capitals’ Tom Wilson said. “Obviously, our backs are against the wall, but it starts with one. I expect guys to step up here and persevere through this.
“We’ve got a little bit of adversity and it’s time to pull together or we’ll be out. So it is what it is.”
Anders Lee scored for New York in regulation.
“For one, there’s no tougher game than a game to clinch a series, and it’s going to be no different in Game 4 here,” Lee said. “It’s going to be a tough, tough game. We played a good one tonight, and we were able to come out on top, but we’ve still got a lot of work to do to make this thing right.”
[WATCH: All Capitals vs. Islanders highlights]
Braden Holtby made 32 saves in the heartbreaking loss for the Caps.
“I think we play a pretty solid game today,” Alex Ovechkin said. “We just didn’t get [the] result, but I’m pretty sure the next game is going to be a different game for sure.
“Obviously, for us right now it’s nothing to lose, right? So we just have to go out there and play; don’t think about the score in the series. We’re going to take it game by game. [Like] I said, we have experience. A couple teams [have come back after losing the first three games] and we believe in ourselves.”
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