After a 5-1 butt whooping in Game 2, the Washington Capitals returned the favor and completely dominated the President’s Trophy winning Florida Panthers by a final of 6-1. They allowed an early goal but then proceeded to score six unanswered to go up 2-1 in the best of seven first round series.
The Panthers struck first at 2:45 from Jonathan Huberdeau. The Caps would get a late power play and cash in from T.J. Oshie on a deflection shot from Alex Ovechkin at 19:34. John Carlson provided the secondary assist as it was 1-1 after one with the Caps leading in shots 11-9.
At 9:51 the Caps took the lead for good with a slam dunk in front of the net from Marcus Johansson that was nicely set up by Anthony Mantha with Nicklas Backstrom providing the secondary assist.
At 18:49 Trevor van Riemsdyk made it 3-1 with the helpers coming from Johansson and Backstrom. That was the score after two with the Panthers leading in shots 13-7.
In the third period the Caps kept adding it on in payback from the previous game. Ovechkin scored on the power play with Conor Sheary and Mantha setting him up from the office at 10:25.
Carlson scored an empty netter off a pass from Lars Eller at 15:40 and Garnet Hathaway put it away at 19:18 from Johan Larsson and Nic Dowd. Ilya Samsonov was lights out in goal as he made 29 saves on 30 shots as the crowd chanted, “Sammy”. The Caps outshot the Panthers 31-30 overall.
Samsonov told the media that he was close to crying when he heard his name being chanted over and over again. He was nervous in the beginning of the game but settled in describing the experience as “fun”.
Coach Peter Laviolette stressed the importance of accountability following this game. They need to put the stranglehold on Game 4:
“If we don’t follow it up, that’s on us.”
Oshie talked about the physicality from Ovechkin, who was noticeable right from the get go:
"“If the big man is hittin — and I guess everyone has got less games than him, less experience, less GOAT-ness — … you better be hitting too. He is going to drag everyone else along with him. He wears the ‘C’ for a reason.”"
The Caps and Panthers resume the series on Monday night for Game 4 at 7 p.m. from Capital One Arena.