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Ilya Samsonov earns first playoff win, was ‘close to crying’ after Capitals fans chanted his name during game

By Chris Cerullo

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May 7, 2022 5:00 pm

Ilya Samsonov’s 2021-22 season has featured a lot of highs and lows. But on Saturday afternoon, Samsonov’s season reached its highest peak. The young, Russian netminder picked up his first career postseason victory, making 29 saves on 30 shots in the Caps’ 6-1 Game Three win over the Florida Panthers.

One special moment in the game even almost brought the netminder to tears.

After a tremendous stop on Florida’s Sam Reinhart in the third period, the Caps faithful chanted “Sammy! Sammy! Sammy!” to acknowledge their goaltender’s heroics.

“Close to cry you know,” Samsonov responded when asked about the chants. “Thank you, fans. It’s important too. Thank you, team. Lot of blocks today. It was more important that we play together and we got great result.”

The former first-round draft selection was tabbed by head coach Peter Laviolette to get the Game Three start after Vitek Vanecek started the first two games of the series in Florida. In his fourth career playoff start, he made his coach look like a genius.

“I thought he was sharp all night,” Laviolette said in his presser. “The second was his best, he had the one in tight. There was a couple that he had through traffic that were really good.”

The one in tight was the impressive stop of the game for Sammy which came against Aleksander Barkov in the second period as it sparked a break the other way that saw Anthony Mantha drive the net and eventually get the puck on Marcus Johansson’s backhand to give the Caps their first lead.

“Pretty quick you know, I didn’t see puck well behind the net. Boom boom, pass pass, save,” the goaltender said chuckling when asked about the stop. “Just like that. Boom boom, save.”

Johansson, the man who turned out to be the beneficiary of the stop sang Samsonov’s praises postgame.

“I mean that’s huge, it was an unbelievable save,” the Swedish forward said. Like Osh said, Sammy was unbelievable for us tonight. He kept us in it when we needed to. That’s the way you need these games to go. He makes a big save and then we go the other way and get one. That’s a big difference, you’re up 2-1 or you’re down 2-1. Sammy was unbelievable for us tonight.”

Screenshot via Capitals

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