The Washington Capitals had the lead but blew it.
The Washington Capitals had a two goal lead in the second period but like they all say in hockey, two goal leads are the most dangerous in the sport. The New York Islanders scored four unanswered goals and their defense suffocated the Caps offense the rest of the way.
John Carlson skated during warmups and was back in the lineup after missing all three round robin games. He was paired on the defense with Michal Kempny as Radko Gudas was the odd man out of the lineup.
The first period was scoreless but not without fireworks after Anders Lee laid out a hit on Nicklas Backstrom that Backstrom didn’t see coming. The hit took Backstrom out of the game and resulted in fights. First Carlson got involved then it was Tom Wilson. The Caps outshot the Islanders 7-2.
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In the second period the offense came alive on the power play thanks to two goals from T.J. Oshie. The first goal came at 5:27 and was assisted by Evgeny Kuznetsov and Carlson. Oshie was positioned in front of the crease and banged it home on the doorstep.
Oshie was on the doorstep again with a scrum in front of the net and he scored once again on the power play to make it 2-0. The goal came at 11:18 and was assisted by Wilson and Carlson.
It looked like the Caps would cruise to a 2-0 shutout win but then the Islanders got on the board at 18:57 with a goal from Jordan Eberle. 2-1 would be the score heading into the second intermission with Islanders leading in shots 11-9.
In the third the Islanders completely took over. Lee scored 51 seconds in. Josh Bailey added one at 6:52 to give them the lead and Anthony Beauvillier scored at 11:55 to seal the win. The Islanders used their defensive game the rest of the way. The Islander led in shots 14-10 in the third period and 27-26 overall. Braden Holtby made 23 saves in the loss for a .852 save percentage.
“I think we have an experienced enough group to know that one game doesn’t make a series. It’s how you respond to it, it’s how you do the little things, learn from the game that you just played and find ways to play them better. I think to push forward from a game like today is one that I want to make sure that I have my best game come next game and as a group, I think individually, if we all expect more of ourselves, then that’s how we’ve won in the past and that’s how we’re going to do it again. First game in the series doesn’t say much about how it’s going to go. It’s how you respond from here on out,” said Holtby.
The Caps will look to bounce back on Friday night at 8 p.m. in Game 2.