Throughout Vegas’ first 16 games in these playoffs, a number of incredible saves were made and until last night, for the most part, they were made by Marc-Andre Fleury. In Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final, Braden Holtby made what might be the save of his life. If Washington goes on to win the Stanley Cup, it’ll be memorized as “THE SAVE.”
With the clock winding down to just under two minutes and Vegas trailing 3-2, a pass into Washington’s zone took a crazy bounce off the end boards. The puck came back out through the crease, past Holtby and onto the stick of Cody Eakin. Following the path of the puck, Holtby slid from right to left to prepare for the shot. Eakin, however, slid the puck across to Alex Tuch, who had a wide-open net.
The entire arena leaped out of their seats. The thousands assembled in Toshiba Plaza jumped up and down celebrating, believing that Alex Tuch had scored and saved the day for Vegas who, for the second game in a row, failed to play Knight-like hockey.
Somehow, Holtby dove across and just managed to get the paddle portion of his stick across the goal line to stop Tuch’s sure goal, which would have tied the score and most likely sent the game into overtime.
For the remaining 1:59, Fleury was pulled for an extra skater, but Tuch’s opportunity was as close as they came. The final score, 3-2 in favor of Washington, tied the series at 1-1. This loss was the VGK’s first at home in regulation in this year’s playoffs.
This was a must-win for Washington. Going down 2-0 to Vegas and having to win four of the five remaining games would be all but insurmountable, especially with Washington winning only four of their previous nine games in Washington. Vegas has a very respectful 6-2 road record. So you would expect Washington to come out with a lot of energy and attempt to take the crowd right out of the game.
Instead, the first 10 minutes were the only 10 of the 60 that the VGK played like we’ve all become accustomed to; they were the quicker team. When Luca Sbisa sent an alley-oop pass into the Washington zone, defenseman Dmitry Orlov reached to glove it and start back in the opposite direction. James Neal, also tracking Sbisa’s pass, knocked the puck out of mid-air, skated a few strides to the faceoff circle, and wristed a perfect shot over Holtby’s left shoulder to give Vegas the 1-0 lead 7:58 into the game.
Just like in Game 1 when Vegas scored first, Washington answered right back with 2:33 left in the first period, then added another 5:38 into the second period. When Washington scored its third unanswered goal, they took a commanding 3-1 lead. In addition, that goal was scored by Brooks Orpik, ending a monumental 220-game streak, dating back to February 20, 2016, including 39 post-season games, in which he failed to put the puck in the net. His last post-season goal was way back on April 21, 2014, when he played for the Pittsburgh Penguins and was a teammate of Marc-Andre Fleury.
The three goals that Washington scored were all off east-to-west passes that took advantage of Fleury’s aggressive posture in coming out to cut the shooter’s angle.
In Game 1, a hit on Jonathan Marchessault galvanized the Knights into a come-from-behind victory after playing a lackluster game. Last night, a similar situation occurred when Brayden McNabb crushed Evgeny Kuznetsov along the boards at center ice. Kuznetsov, the Caps leading scorer in the playoffs, immediately left the ice, hunched over and clutching his left arm; he didn’t return.
The hit seemed to bring the Caps to life, giving them a purpose. Moving up Lars Eller to fill Kuznetsov’s spot also paid dividends: Eller scored Washington’s first goal; had primary assists on the team’s two other goals; and wound up with three points, a +1 for the night and 6 hits, a team high for the night.
Alex Ovechkin, who was almost invisible in Game 1, was much more engaged last night; he scored a power-play goal and had five hits.
Washington had eight giveaways in Game 1, many of which were caused by Vegas’ relentless fore-check. The Caps cut that in half last night with only four giveaways, while the VGK’s fore-check for the most part was missing in action.
When the third period started, Vegas trailed by a goal. Contrary to expectations, during a 10-minute span in the third, Vegas was held without a shot. Even with a 5-on-3 advantage, they seemed to look for the perfect shot, instead of just getting some rubber on Holtby, registering a single shot with the two-man advantage. That’s unacceptable in any game, but in a pivotal Stanley Cup Final game, it’s horrendous. Winning Game 2 last night would have pretty much sealed the deal for Vegas in their attempt to win the cup in their inaugural season. Now it’s a best-of-five series with three of the remaining games in Washington.
Last night’s result was the first loss in Stanley Cup Final history for the VGK franchise. Ironically, the win last night was the first in Stanley Cup Final history for Washington, in whose only other appearance in the Stanley Cup Final in 1998, they were swept 4-0 by the Detroit Red Wings.
If there’s a silver lining to this black cloud, it’s this: Vegas hasn’t played well in the first two games, but are tied 1-1; they only lost last night because of THE SAVE.
VGK goal scorers: James Neal (5), Shea Theodore (3)
My three stars of the game: Lars Eller (1goal, 2 assists), Braden Holtby (37 saves on 39 shots), Brooks Orpik (1 goal, 6 hits)
Game 5 is in Washington on Saturday June 2 at 5 p.m. Pacific Time.
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