The Washington Capitals made a huge statement last night in Game 1 against the President’s Trophy winning, top seeded, Florida Panthers. They showed the hockey world that despite being second wild card, they’re not going to go down quietly and they’re determined for an upset after a 4-2 win.
49 seconds into the game former Capital Radko Gudas was called for high sticking Tom Wilson. It would be a Wilson snipe on the power play at 3:47 to put the Caps up early. It was assisted by Anthony Mantha and Justin Schultz.
The Panthers tied it at 17:55 from Sam Bennett. 1-1 was the score after one with the Caps putting the pressure on Sergei Bobrovsky, outshooting the Panthers 17-10.
43 seconds into the second period trade deadline acquisition Claude Giroux gave the Panthers the led. 2-1 was the score after two with the Caps leading in shots 14-10 in the second period.
At 8:14 in the third, Alex Ovechkin stripped the puck at center ice then found Evgeny Kuznetsov all alone for the breakaway goal. Then at 10:37 the Caps took the lead as Dmitry Orlov fed Nicklas Backstrom for a two on two rush. Backstrom found T.J. Oshie on a good cut to the goal and the Oshbabe finished. Lars Eller put it away with an empty net goal.
Hats off to not only the Caps heart for coming back in the third but for the big play of Vitek Vanecek to keep the Caps in the game. He made 30 saves on 32 shots as the Caps outshot the Panthers 38-22.
Oshie talked to the media about his game winning goal with the sweet set up from Backstrom:
"“Typical Nicky fashion, [he] sauced it through a guy’s legs and right on my tape. I just redirected it, didn’t see it go in so he had to come tell me that we scored.”"
The only bad news after the game is that Tom Wilson left the contest with a lower body injury. The Caps have an optional skate today at 1:00. Game 2 is Thursday night at 7:30 p.m.
This was an important game for the Capitals to win. It’s always good to get the series off to a good start, especially on the road. Now home ice advantage is on the Caps side and they really have a chance to go back to D.C. up 2-0. It can be done, we’ve seen other teams knock off President’s Trophy winners. Now it’s our turn. It’s always fun to be the underdog.