The Washington Capitals have tied the 2018 Stanley Cup Final series up 1-1 after defeating the Vegas Golden Knights in Game Two, 3-2. The series now comes to DC, get your red rockin’ Capital One Arena.
The Capitals were out-shot 39 to 26 and out-attempted at five-on-five 48 to 38.
- The 2017-18 Capitals have won the first Stanley Cup Final game in the history of the franchise. All-time the Caps are now 1-5 in the league’s ultimate series, lets again hope that they make that 4-5 in June.
- Braden Holtby was outstanding in Game Two and made the biggest save in franchise history with around two minutes left in the third period with the Capitals clinging to their 3-2 lead. The save, pictured in the headline photo, was only one of Holtby’s 37 on the night. Holy hell Holtbeast.
- The other big development of the night is the fact that Evgeny Kuznetsov took a high hit from Brayden McNabb in the first period and did not return with what is being classified as an upper-body injury. The loss of Kuznetsov for any amount of time is a devastating blow to the Capitals and is all I can really think about right now. Kuzy leads the team in points in this years playoffs and was on an 11-game point streak coming into Wednesday night’s action.
- In Kuzy’s absence, Lars Eller had to step up to the plate and take on top six minutes again. The Danish center responded by grabbing the primary assist on two goals and scoring one himself. Eller now has six goals and 15 points overall in this year’s postseason. In his 50 prior playoff games to this run, he had six goals and 23 points overall. If Kuzy is out long term, the Caps need the man they call “Tiger” to step up large.
- Brooks Orpik scored. That was the first goal of any kind that Orpik has scored since February 26, 2016. Talk about timing.
- In more common news, Alex Ovechkin scored again. In between Orpik goals, Ovechkin scored 116 times. His 13th of the playoffs leaves him one shy of the franchise, single season playoff scoring record of 14 goals held by John Druce. His 59th career playoff goal, ties Paul Coffey and Stan Mikita for 34th in NHL history.
- As a team the Capitals are now one win away from tying the NHL playoffs record for road wins. The current record is held by the 1995 New Jersey Devils, 2000 New Jersey Devils, 2004 Calgary Flames, and 2012 Los Angeles Kings. Three of those four teams won the Cup.
- The Vegas Golden Knights suffered their first loss in regulation at home since March 28. That’s what kind of hot streak they’ve been on.
- Andre Burakovsky now has five points in his last three games. He had zero points in seven games prior.
- Enjoy the extra day of no stress, cross your fingers for Kuzy, bow down to Holts, and buy a shirt. See you Sunday morning.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com, Hockeystats.ca, NaturalStatTrick.com, Capitals PR, and Corsica.hockey.
Full RMNB Coverage of Game Two
Headline Photo: Ethan Miller
