The Washington Capitals racked up a must-win in heart-stopping fashion late Tuesday night in Columbus, beating the Blue Jackets in double-overtime. Columbus now leads the series 2-1 with Game 4 on Thursday night.
The game-winning goal was orchestrated by the Capitals third line with Lars Eller awkwardly banging home a rebound off a shot from the left wing by Brett Connolly. Devante Smith Pelly set up Connolly’s shot with a nice pass from about the center-ice marker and hit his teammate in stride.
Connolly, a right-handed shot playing on his off-wing, went high with a blistering shot. The Caps crashed the net and Eller banged it home.
It’s the type of goal the Caps almost never get in the playoffs -- and a key reason why the Alex Ovechkin-era Caps have not advanced past the second round.
Washington rarely scores the dirty goal like other teams do.
They’re a precision team for the most part that doesn’t often storm the net as much as they should. In this sequence, they did it perfectly and were rewarded with a season-saving win.
1. Braden Holtby was very good. He got some help as the Blue Jackets hit four posts during the game. Sometimes you must be lucky and finally the Caps were on Tuesday night. That doesn’t mean that the “Holt-Beast” wasn’t very good. He was. He stopped 33-of-35 shots on net, including several big ones throughout. A big save on Cam Atkinson stands out. Josh Anderson also had a chance in overtime. Artemi Panarin was buzzing all over the place.
Holtby gave up one goal to his glove-side high, which is where Columbus has had tremendous success in the series. Overall, Holtby was what the Caps needed him to be.
2. Brett Connolly, as we mentioned, set up the game-winning goal and also had a goal he scored taken away on a controversial off-sides review that cost Washington a 2-0 lead.
Connolly was absolutely in the attacking zone but what was unclear on the television coverage was where the puck exactly was in conjunction. The NHL took the goal off the board, but it was another crash-the-net party type of goal.
Jakub Vrana also stood out. He had several scoring chances, skated well and drew two consecutive penalties. Vrana was a healthy scratch in Game 2.
Defenseman Michal Kempny was also very active on both ends. He had four shots-on-goal in just over 24 minutes with three blocked shots. Kempny swallow up a potential cross-ice high slot one-timer with a sliding breakup.
Tom Wilson took a tough penalty (again) in the first period but was great the rest of the night. He scored the Caps first goal on a deflection of a Matt Niskanen shot. He killed the penalties that he wasn’t in the box for. He was terrific in one sequence on Panarin in the first overtime.
Rookie defenseman Christian Djoos also showed well at times in his first NHL playoff game. Chandler Stephenson also flashed some late in the first overtime. Give Barry Trotz credit. His goaltending decision backfired but Vrana was terrific and Djoos showed well, replacing Jakub Jerabek.
3 – Dmitry Orlov struggled again -- at least in one big spot -- turning the puck over for a quick transition by Columbus and a beautiful tic-tac-toe goal. He’s been partially responsible for three goals that Columbus has scored in the series.
Overtime – The Caps will be off on Wednesday as they recover. Game 5 will now officially be held at Capital One Arena with time to be determined.
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