The Washington Capitals beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-0 Wednesday night at Amalie Arena in Tampa. With the victory, the Capitals win the Eastern Conference title 4-3, and will face the Vegas Golden Knights in the Stanley Cup Finals. Game 1 is set for Monday night in Las Vegas.
After Alex Ovechkin opened the scoring 62 seconds into the first period, giving the Capitals a 1-0 lead at the first intermission. Andre Burakovsky would score a pair of goals in the middle frame to give the Capitals a 3-0 lead at the second intermission. Nicklas Backstrom would add an empty net goal late in the third period for the 4-0 win.
STARTERS
Braden Holtby (11-6, 2.16 GAA, .919 sv%) started between the pipes for the Capitals. Andrei Vasilevskiy (11-5, 2.55 GAA, .920 sv%) started in goal for the Lightning. The Capitals starting forward lines and defensive pairs for Game 7:
Forward lines:
Ovechkin-Kuznetsov-Wilson
Vrana-Backstrom-Oshie
Burakovsky-Eller-Connolly
Stephenson-Beagle-Smith-Pelly
Defensive Pairs:
Kempny-Carlson
Orlov-Niskanen
Orpik-Djoos
Scratches: Alex Chiasson, Madison Bowey, Jakub Jerabek, Shane Gersich, Travis Boyd Nathan Walker and Pheonix Copley.
FIRST PERIOD
the Capitals opened the scoring with a goal from Alex Ovechkin at 1:02 of the first frame. Evgeny Kuznetsov and Tom Wilson were credited with the assists.
Tom Wilson and Braydon Coburn dropped the gloves midway through the period. Both received five-minutes for fighting.
The period would end with the Capitals hanging on to a 1-0 lead. Tampa Bay led in shots on goal 10-9 for the first 20 minutes. The Capitals had the only power play but were unsuccessful on the man advantage.
SECOND PERIOD
The Capitals would stretch their lead to 2-0 with a goal from Andre Burakovsky at 8:59 of the middle frame.
Andre Burakovsky would do it again with a five-hole goal at 16:31 of the second period. John Carlson was credited with the lone assist.
Tampa Bay outshot Washington 12-6 for the middle frame, and led 22-15 after two periods of play.
THIRD PERIOD
The Capitals went into a prevent defense to start the final frame. Tampa Bay didn’t have a shot on goal in the first 12 minutes of the third period. Nicklas Backstrom would add an empy net goal for the 4-0 lead
The Capitals would lock it down for the 4-0 win.
SHAVINGS
- Braden Holtby pitches a shutout for the second straight game.
- The NHL box score is here.
SCENES FROM TAMPA AND THE DISTRICT
Somewhere Doug Mohns is smiling
And Ace Bailey
And while I was too superstitious to actually put Game 3,4, and 6 in my calendar, I paid more attention to when the Stanley Cup games would be played than I normally do.
And was it my subconscious working or merely wishful thinking, but when I opened up the latest issue of Hockey News and looked at the pre-draft rankings, my eye immediately when to the guy ranked at #31 — Mattias Samuelsson, an American born offensive defenseman who was the Captain of the US Under 18 team. (Doesn’t mean Caps will actually draft Matt but that’s who #31 is)
(Note: I had accidentally posted this on another article. This is where it belongs.)
Glen Hall, Eric Nesterenko, Chico Maki, Doug Mohns, Pierre Pilote, Doug Jarrett and Dennis Hull, et al, where have you (and all the decades) gone?
Don’t know, but WE’RE FINALLY GOING TO THE FINALS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Smiles,
Clifford
Well said, Clifford.
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