D10 EZ M2 THE WASHINGTON POST.SUNDAY, MAY 8 , 2022
Stanley Cup playoffsASSOCIATED PRESSLouis Domingue remembers
dragging a net out into the street,
pulling on his inline skates and
dreaming what it would be like to
be in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
The reality is surpassing the
Pittsburgh Penguins’ backup to
the backup goaltender’s greatest
expectations.
The journeyman stopped
32 shots — including a handful on
the penalty kill in the third period
with the Penguins reeling — to set
the stage for Danton Heinen’s late
tally as host Pittsburgh surged
past the New York Rangers, 7-4, on
Saturday night to take a 2-1 lead in
their first-round series.
“In the last whatever, seven
years, I’ve been in and out of the
league. It’s the first time I’m a
rookie again,” said Domingue,
thrust into action with all-star
Tristan Jarry and top reserve
Casey DeSmith both unavailable
because of injury. “I’m a rookie in
the playoffs.... Every day is a new
day for me. It’s a new experience.”
A wild one at that.
The Penguins grabbed control
of the series heading into Monday
night’s Game 4 by chasing Vezina
Trophy-favorite Igor Shesterkin in
the first period, blowing a three-
goal cushion in the second then
responding even with the top line
of Sidney Crosby, Jake Guentzel
and Bryan Rust contributing
nothing on the scoresheet until
New York’s net was empty in the
final minutes.
“A lot of teams don’t recover
from [losing a three-goal advan-
tage],” Pittsburgh Coach Mike Sul-
livan said. “I think it speaks vol-
umes to the leadership and the
character of our group that we
were able to move by it.”
The Penguins killed off a pair of
penalties in the first half of the
third to keep the score tied before
Heinen jumped on a loose puck
near the New York goal line and
flicked a shot by Alexandar Geor-
giev 11:02 into the third to put the
Penguins in front to stay.
Evan Rodrigues had two goals
and assisted on another for the
Penguins. Jeff Carter also scored
twice for the Pittsburgh while
Brock McGinn started the scoring
on what became two-plus hours of
seismic momentum shifts with his
first goal of the playoffs.
Kaapo Kakko, Frank Vatrano,
Artemi Panarin and Andrew Copp
scored for the Rangers. Georgiev
finished with 19 saves on 20 shots
after taking over for Shesterkin,
who was chased after allowing
four goals in the first period.
“Igor has been outstanding,”
New York Coach Gerard Gallant
said. “Really, you look at it right
now, and he’s played 10 periods the
last 4^1 / 2 days, five days, whatever it
is. I thought it was a good time to
jump-start it. Fortunately for us,
we battled back in the second and
tied it up. Unfortunately, in the
third, they get a goal.”
l AVALANCHE 7, PREDA-
TORS 3: Gabriel Landeskog
scored twice in the second period,
and top-seeded Colorado beat
host Nashville for a commanding
3-0 lead in their first-round West-
ern Conference series.
Landeskog also had two assists.
Nazem Kadri and Devon Toews
each added a goal and an assist
and Artturi Lehkonen and Nathan
MacKinnon scored a power-play
goal apiece as Colorado went 4 for
5 on the man advantage to push
Nashville to the brink of elimina-
tion. Cale Makar had three assists.
Valeri Nichushkin added an
empty-net goal with 2:46 left. The
Avalanche had a couple missed
opportunities once Nashville
pulled goalie Connor Ingram with
more than four minutes remain-
ing.
Avalanche goalie Darcy Kuem-
per was hurt with a minute left in
the first period. Pavel Francouz
replaced him and made 20 saves in
his seventh career playoff appear-
ance.
Matt Duchene, Eeli Tolvanen
and captain Roman Josi each
scored goals for Nashville. Alexan-
dre Carrier had two assists.
This is the first time the Preda-
tors have trailed 3-0 in a series,
and they will try to avoid being
swept for the first time in their
15 playoff appearances in Game 4
on Monday night.
Colorado has outscored Nash-
ville 16-6 with a 137-81 difference
in shots over the first three games.ROUNDUPPittsburghovercomesmeltdown,goes up 2-1PENGUINS 7,
RANGERS 4JONATHAN NEWTON/THE WASHINGTON POSTCapitals goaltender Ilya Samsonov denies Florida’s Mason Marchment in the second period Saturday. Samsonov made 29 saves on 30 shots in his first start of the postseason.
Against that group, Florida
also has to deal with its own
expectations, and it might be
there’s a burden that comes with
having the NHL’s best regular
season record. It’s basically a
coin toss as to whether a
Presidents’ Trophy winner will
claim the Stanley Cup (eight
have done it) or get bounced in
the first round (happened seven
times).
“So far, the story written right
now is they’ve outcompeted us,
outwilled us, pretty much in
every puck battle, every area,”
Florida Coach Andrew Brunette
said. “Something we’re going to
have to figure out here.”
The Capitals might not be the
better team, and they might not
win the series. But they
responded to a poor third period
of Game 2 not by squeezing their
sticks tighter but by reverting to
what they need to do to win.
Maybe that’s easier to do when
the hockey-watching world
looked at a 5-1 Panthers win and
thought it was akin to a market
correction.
Next?
“This game, if we don’t follow
it up, then that’s on us,” Capitals
Coach Peter Laviolette said.
He said it confidently, as if his
underdog team was prepared to
take control of the series.somehow seemed more prepared
for the playoffs.
Washington lost in six.
There’s a lesson in there for
these Capitals — but in reverse.
“When playoffs start, it is a
clean slate,” Oshie said. “Your
identity is your identity one
team to the next, but everyone is
starting at zero.”
This shoe’s-on-the-other foot
feeling goes back to Game 1 on
Tuesday in Florida. The
superskilled Panthers dazzled
with their moves and their flash
for two periods, and the Capitals
calmly and coolly waited them
out, scoring three times in the
third — Alex Oveckin setting up
Evgeny Kuznetsov for a
breakaway, Nicklas Backstrom
threading an elite pass to Oshie,
Lars Eller finding an empty net
— for the kind of comeback win
Florida had prevented all year.
Look at the names that
contributed there. They’re all on
the Stanley Cup, back in 2018.
On Saturday, Oshie scored again.
Ovechkin scored once and had
an assist. Backstrom dished out
a pair of helpers. This Capitals
group — with its goaltending a
shot-to-shot question mark —
might not be built for a deep
run. But the Panthers aren’t
facing a bunch of what-are-we-
doing-here neophytes, either.team that was willing to pack it
in and block every shot, one that
came with a goaltender who did
cartwheels and backflips to
make saves. Real Caps fans will
never forget his name, so it
maybe shouldn’t be typed
because of the nightmares it still
causes. Alas, journalism classes
require including the who along
with the what, the when and the
why. (Quietly, then. Shhh. It was
Jaroslav Halak.) A this-series-is-
over 3-1 lead became a
debilitating seven-game loss.
Ouch.
The years, they kind of run
together because for a decade
the Capitals looked more likely
to play deep into the spring than
they did to go home early. Oshie
couldn’t quite decide whether
the season he was referring to
was 2016 or 2017, because the
Caps won the Presidents’ Trophy
both times and both times they
lost to old nemesis Pittsburgh in
the second round.
But the first of those two was
correct. In that 2015-16 season,
the Capitals racked up
120 points, 16 more than anyone
else in the Eastern Conference.
They handled Philadelphia in
the first round. But in the
second, they faced those
Penguins — who finished all
those points behind yetthe Panthers were outscored by
10 goals.
And now this — a matinee in
Washington in which the
Capitals reestablished
themselves in net with a solid
outing from Ilya Samsonov
(29 saves on 30 shots), in which
they continued to hold the
powerful Panthers scoreless on
the power play (0 for 9 in the
series) and in which the attitude
of the underdog was decidedly
more appealing.
“I think we’re playing a little
nervous,” Florida forward
Jonathan Huberdeau said.
“We’re not playing the game that
we should play, and I think we’re
a way better team.”
Those words could have
escaped the lips of, say, Mike
Green in 2010, Justin Williams
in 2016 or Brooks Orpik in 2017.
But playing the role of the 2010,
2016 and 2017 Washington
Capitals just might be the 2022
Florida Panthers.
This is not predicting what
will happen Monday or for the
rest of the series. It’s merely
identifying how it feels.
Remember those years and those
gut-wrenching series? In 2010,
the Alex Ovechkin-era Capitals’
first real foray into the playoffs
with a we’re-in-it-to-win-it
swagger, they found a Montrealoutscoring opponents by an
NHL-best 94 goals over the
course of 82 games means
exactly zero when the playoffs
start and everyone’s record goes
back to 0-0.
Where have we heard that
before?
“I can’t speak to how they are
feeling right now,” said Capitals
veteran T.J. Oshie, one of the six
goal scorers Saturday. He
thought back to 2016 and his
own team that had blitzed
through the regular season.
Those Capitals came into the
playoffs rested. They didn’t
necessarily come in ready.
“When we stepped into
playoff hockey after being so far
ahead — us, at that time, slowed
down a little bit before the
playoffs,” Oshie said.
Could that be these Panthers?
It’s such a delicate balance at the
end of a regular season like that
— how to stay sharp for what’s to
come but not risk unnecessary
injury or fatigue. From March 29
to April 23, Florida secured the
league’s best record — and, more
importantly, the top seed in the
East — by running off 13 straight
wins. But what followed to close
the regular season: three losses
in four games, a stretch in which
SVRLUGA FROM D1
BARRY SVRLUGA
Panthers now are the ones feeling the burden of Presidents’ Trophy
... I’m sure they’ll come back
next game looking to put pucks
in the net, and we’ve got to do
our best to kind of adjust.”
Bobrovsky had looked sharp
in this series. But in Game 3, he
left too many rebounds up for
grabs, and the Capitals, after a
few early missed opportunities,
capitalized.
Samsonov got the nod for
Washington over Vitek Vanecek,
who started Games 1 and 2 in
Sunrise, Fla. Vanecek made
30 saves in the opener but al-
lowed five goals on 18 shots in
Game 2.
Wilson, who suffered a lower-
body injury in Game 1 and is still
listed as day-to-day, missed his
second straight game. Without
him, rookie Connor McMichael
made his postseason debut.
“We’re a successful team,”
Laviolette said. “We had
100 points [in the regular sea-
son], and our goaltenders were a
big part of it. It’s just the way that
it’s gone for us with two young
goaltenders in their second year.
And so they both have had really
good moments and played really
well for stretches, but this is how
we’ve operated for the past two
years, and they’ve done a good
job.”
and get one. It makes a big
difference.”
Van Riemsdyk’s goal at 18:49
of the second from the left circle
made it 3-1.
The Capitals opened the sec-
ond period with two successful
penalty kills, leaving them 9 for 9
in the series against Florida’s
potent offense. The momentum
from the two kills gave way to
Johansson’s goal midway
through the second.
“We’ve had some huge saves
when things do break down, and
that’s always crucial on the PK,”
van Riemsdyk said. “They’re ob-
viously an unbelievable group.second.
Anthony Mantha, who has
played his best hockey of the
season during this series, started
the play with his heavy
forecheck. Then his backhanded
shot banked off Panthers de-
fenseman Ben Chiarot before
Johansson collected the rebound
and buried it in front. Johansson
also gave credit to Samsonov,
who made a big stop on Florida’s
Aleksander Barkov on the previ-
ous shift.
“It was an unbelievable save,”
Johansson said. “Sammy was
unbelievable for us tonight. He
kept us in it when we needed to.
That’s the way you need these
games to go. He makes a big save,
and then we go the other wayway through,” winger T.J. Oshie
said. “The score might have been
6-1, but we didn’t score our first
goal for a while, and we had to
grind it out for a little while
and keep going and going and
going.”
Samsonov’s lone error hap-
pened early — a goal from Flori-
da’s Jonathan Huberdeau that
came just 2:45 into the game. It
was Florida’s second shot on
goal. Huberdeau was crushed by
Ovechkin on the other end of the
ice but then raced into the offen-
sive zone and unleashed the
snipe past Samsonov.
Washington bounced back,
though, getting goals from Oshie,
Marcus Johansson, Trevor van
Riemsdyk, Ovechkin, Carlson
and Hathaway.
“We just came out harder,”
Johansson said. “We responded.
Last game kind of pissed us off a
little bit, and we played a good
60 minutes.”
The Capitals equalized late in
the first period, when Oshie
deflected Ovechkin’s shot
through traffic on the power
play. It was Oshie’s second goal of
the series and Ovechkin’s third
assist of the postseason.
Johansson then scored with a
pretty backhand at 9:51 of theGame 4 set for Monday night in
Chinatown. The Capitals, who
are playing without injured
winger Tom Wilson, came into
the series against the Panthers as
heavy underdogs and are deter-
mined to keep their momentum.
“This game — if we don’t
follow it up, then that’s on us,”
Capitals Coach Peter Laviolette
said. “It’s got to be pointed from
right now. We’ve got to make
sure that our mind-set is know-
ing exactly where they’re at. Our
preparation, our work, our
d etail: That has to be the priori-
ty.”
The Capitals rebounded from
an early 1-0 deficit and held a 3-1
lead entering the final period.
Washington kept building its
advantage late. Captain Alex
Ovechkin got his first goal of the
Stanley Cup playoffs midway
through the third with a power-
ful blast that beat Florida goalie
Sergei Bobrovsky.
Defenseman John Carlson
added an empty-netter with 4:20
left in the third, and Garnet
Hathaway scored with less than a
minute remaining.
“The boys did a really good job
from the drop of the puck all the
CAPITALS FROM D1
Samsonov steps in, helps Caps claim series lead
Capitals vs. Panthers
Washington leads 2-1
Game 1: Washington 4, Florida 2
Game 2: Florida 5, Washington 1
Game 3: Washington 6, Florida 1
Tomorrow: at Washington, 7 (TBS)
Wed.: at Florida, 7:30 (ESPN2)
Friday*: at Washington, TBD
May 15*: at Florida, TBD
* if necessary; all games also
on NBC Sports WashingtonCapitals 6, Panthers 1
FLORIDA .................................. 1 00 —1
WASHINGTON ......................... 1 23 —6
FIRST PERIOD
Scoring: 1, Florida, Huberdeau 1 (Duclair, Ekblad), 2:45.
2, Washington, Oshie 2 (Ovechkin, Carlson), 19:34 (pp).
SECOND PERIOD
Scoring: 3, Washington, Johansson 1 (Mantha, Back-
strom), 9:51. 4, Washington, van Riemsdyk 1 (Back-
strom, Johansson), 18:49.
THIRD PERIOD
Scoring: 5, Washington, Ovechkin 1 (Mantha, Sheary),
10:25 (pp). 6, Washington, Carlson 1 (Eller), 15:40 (en).
7, Washington, Hathaway 1 (Dowd, Larsson), 19:18.
SHOTS ON GOAL
FLORIDA .................................. 9 13 8— 30
WASHINGTON ....................... 11713 —3 1
Power-play opportunities: Florida 0 of 3; Washington 2
of 6. Goalies: Florida, Bobrovsky 1-2-0 (30 shots-25
saves). Washington, Samsonov 1-0-0 (30-29). A: 18,573
(18,277). T: 2:34.