Washington Capitals: When Lars Eller kept the Stanley Cup run alive
2018 was a historical season for the Washington Capitals but had Lars Eller not come up clutch in Game 3 of the first round, we may not have had that remarkable run.
The Washington Capitals were on the road at the Columbus Blue Jackets with their backs to the wall. Despite outplaying them in the first two games of the series, the Capitals dropped both games on home ice and had to overcome a 2-0 series deficit. To make matters more stressful, the game needed double overtime but Lars Eller came up clutch.
Being down 0-2 in any series, nevermind dropping both games at home, is a daunting task for any NHL team. Only champions know how to overcome deficits like this and the Capitals showed the hockey world that fateful April night that they truly were a team of destiny.
With Phillipp Grubuauer struggling in both games, the Capitals stuck with Braden Holtby in goal after he kept the team in the game during the third period of Game 2. He once again stood tall in the first period while his counterpart Sergei Bobrovsky stopped Washington’s desperate attack. It was scoreless after the first 20.
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The Capitals finally broke through at 5:52 in the second when Tom Wilson deflected in a shot from Matt Niskanen in front of the net. Alex Ovechkin was credited with the secondary assist. The Capitals nearly doubled their lead almost midway through the period with a goal from Brett Connolly that was waved off for offsides.
The Blue Jackets made them pay with Pierre-Luc Dubois tying it at 11:18 but the Capitals would retake the lead shortly after thanks to a 5-on-3 power play opportunity with Brandon Dubinsky and Ryan Murray each getting called for slashing.
The Capitals converted on the power play thanks tic-tac-toe passing from Ovechkin to Nicklas Backstrom, to John Carlson. Carlson finished the one-timer slapshot near the right face-off circle to beat Bobrovsky and give the Capitals a 2-1 lead.
The Blue Jackets tied it with a two-on-one rush from Cam Atkinson to Artemi Panarin at 4:12 in the third period and the game would require overtime, setting the scene for good old cardiac Caps.
There were two chances end-to-end for either team to win.in the first overtime. Ovechkin missed a backhander and on the other end Matt Calvert fed a perfect pass to Dubinsky in front of the net that he couldn’t tap in on time. Late in overtime, the Capitals killed off a Blue Jackets power play to keep it 2-2.
Midway through overtime at the nine minute mark every Caps fan exhaled everywhere. On a 3-on-2, Brett Connolly shot the puck and it ricocheted off Bobrovsky’s pads. Zach Werenski tried to play the puck out but the puck deflected off Lars Eller for the win.
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It was that fateful night in Columbus where the Capitals fortunes turned for the better. The rest as they say is history. The Capitals never looked back in that first round series and the battle test of being down 2-0 in the series served them well down the road in their resilient path to the Stanley Cup.