Erick Malpica Flores: Carlos Erick Malpica Flores: Capitals beat Golden Knights in Game 2 thanks to this wild save

The series is tied after a dramatic Capitals win.

The Stanley Cup Final is knotted at one game apiece. The Capitals won Game 2 against the Golden Knights in Las Vegas on Wednesday, beating them in a 3-2 thriller.

For the second game in a row, the Golden Knights scored the first goal. But the Capitals scored three in a row after that, including Brooks Orpik’s first goal since 2016 and Alex Ovechkin’s first Stanley Cup Final goal ever (in his second game).

Vegas pushed hard in the third period but came up short, in large part thanks to one of the most dramatic saves in Stanley Cup history. That came in the last two minutes, when Alex Tuch had most of an open net to work with from a few feet away:

From his stomach, Braden Holtby reached out and stopped Tuch’s net-bound shot with his stick. Vegas didn’t get a better chance than that, not that it ever could.

Game 3 is Saturday night in Washington, D.C.

Below is a living recap of this game, in reverse chronological order. Third period

1:59: WAS 3, VGK 2

Braden Holtby just made the save of the playoffs on Alex Tuch to keep this game tied. Tuch had most of an empty net to work with, and Holtby reached out to stop his shot with his stick. That was one of the most dramatic saves in hockey ... history? Yeah, probably.

3:37: WAS 3, VGK 2

Soon, Vegas will probably pull Marc-Andre Fleury for an extra skater. The Capitals have given up two goals at six-on-five in the playoffs. Vegas hasn’t scored one yet.

4:58: WAS 3, VGK 2

The Capitals have come close a couple of times to scoring an insurance goal and effectively putting this game away. It hasn’t quite happened.

9:38: WAS 3, VGK 2

Things have settled down a little bit since the Capitals stayed above water by killing 1:09’s worth of a five-on-three power play for Vegas. For the Caps right now, calm is good.

Shots in the third period are 10-2, Vegas.

13:55: WAS 3, VGK 2

The Capitals killed off more than a minute of five-on-three time and about three minutes of total shorthanded time in sequence. That was an enormous effort by Washington.

15:55: WAS 3, VGK 2

Lars Eller sits for hooking Colin Miller on a rush, and Vegas has 1:09 of a five-on-three power play, down a goal. Buckle up.

16:47 : WAS 3, VGK 2

Tom Wilson took a silly interference penalty, and Vegas has a chance on the power play to tie the game. That doesn’t fly in the Stanley Cup Final, but both teams have taken unnecessary penalties away from the action in this game.

Vegas’ power play is 1-of-3 on the night.

18:00 : WAS 3, VGK 2

Lars Eller, who has three points tonight, just missed the net on a break down the right wing. The teams are, obviously, back on the ice.

Second intermission: Washington 3, Vegas 2

The Capitals come out of the second plus-1 in the goals department. It was almost plus-2, but Jakub Vrana put a shot off the right post behind Marc-Andre Fleury, instead of into the net, with about a minute left. Washington dominated the middle part of the period, but the Golden Knights got back in the game with a power play goal with 2:13 left.

The best player on the ice tonight has been Lars Eller, the Capitals’ usual No. 3 center who’s been bumped up to the second line with Evgeny Kuznetsov injured. Eller already has his third three-point game of the playoffs, and it would’ve been a four-pointer if that Vrana shot on a rush had gotten mesh instead of iron. Eller stepped up in a big way when Nicklas Backstrom was injured earlier in the playoffs, and he’s doing it again without Kuznetsov.

Second period

Updates denote time remaining in the period:

2:13: WAS 3, VGK 2

Goal, Vegas, 20 seconds into a power play after a dumb penalty by the Capitals’ T.J. Oshie. Shea Theodore let loose a casual wrist shot through four bodies, and Braden Holtby didn’t see it until it was too late. It’s a new game.

2:33: WAS 3, VGK 1

T.J. Oshie is in the penalty box for Washington. The officiating crew tonight has cracked down on little skirmishes in front of the net, and Oshie went off for interference after he ran Colin Miller to the ground in front of the Capitals’ net. Seconds earlier, Miller laid into Holtby with a hit that could’ve been called boarding. Oshie’s retaliation got him.

2:55: WAS 3, VGK 1

The Capitals have a two-goal lead and have put the Knights on their heels. The Knights have a 12-8 shots advantage in the second period, but the Capitals have again been the better team as the period has gotten longer.

4:53: WAS 3, VGK 1

7:43: WAS 3, VGK 1

The Golden Knights ended the Capitals’ power play by drawing a penalty on the other hand. Dmitry Orlov hooked Ryan Carpenter on a breakaway. It looked from here like that should’ve been a penalty shot for Carpenter, but the Knights will get a power play instead.

9:50: WAS 3, VGK 1

That penalty:

The Brooks Orpik goal from a few moments ago:

10:19: WAS 3, VGK 1

The Capitals score again, and it’s Brooks Orpik. The lumbering defenseman has his first goal in 21 playoff games. He had zero in 81 regular-season games. We’ve just seen Bigfoot.

Lars Eller continues to shine for the Capitals. He made a nifty pass to set up Orpik in the right circle, and his shot took an odd bounce.

10:45: WAS 2, VGK 1

A brief spell of four-on-four play is over. Vegas didn’t give up a goal this time.

13:04: WAS 2, VGK 1

For the second time, we’ll have four-on-four hockey. Nicklas Backstrom interfered with Erik Haula as Haula drove to the net, but Haula dove and got an embellishment minor. The last four-on-four in this game led to a layup of a Lars Eller goal for Washington.

13:34: WAS 2, VGK 1

14:22: WAS 2, VGK 1

Alex Ovechkin scored the first Stanley Cup Final goal of his career, in his second game. The Capitals moved the puck precisely, and Lars Eller threaded a pass from the goal line through the slot to Ovechkin, who one-timed it past Marc-Andre Fleury.

Eller has two points. Nicklas Backstrom got the other assist. Knights, your thoughts?

Agreed.

14:47: WAS 1, VGK 1.

Alex Tuch cross-checked John Carlson in the back and dropped him to the ice. The Capitals will get their first power play of the night. Their 28.3 percent success rate in the playoffs is third-best in the league. Lars Eller replaces the injured Evgeny Kuznetsov on their top unit.

15:50: WAS 1, VGK 1

The Capitals killed a two-minute minor to Brooks Orpik.

Meanwhile, in D.C. tonight:

17:56: WAS 1, VGK 1

The Golden Knights get the game’s first power play. Brooks Orpik hit James Neal high, and he’s off to the box for an illegal check to the head. It looks like Orpik hit Neal’s hand and caused Neal to hit himself in the face.

18:18: WAS 1, VGK 1

Evgeny Kuznetsov is not on the ice or Washington’s bench to start the second period. Kuznetsov is leading scorer in these playoffs with 25 points. He was grabbing his left arm or wrist after this hit by the Knights’ Brayden McNabb in the first period:

First intermission: Capitals 1, Golden Knights 1

The first period turned toward the Capitals as it wore on. James Neal scored for the Knights on their eighth shot, almost exactly eight minutes into the game. Vegas didn’t get another shot for five-plus minutes and finished the period with 10 to Washington’s 12. The Capitals were stuck on three shots on goal when Neal scored eight minutes in.

Both goalies were sharp, though Marc-Andre Fleury was way out of position when Lars Eller scored the tying marker for the Capitals with 2:33 left on the clock:

The goaltender focused too much on defenseman Michal Kempny, not enough on Eller.

All told, that was an evenly played period. But it was better for the Capitals toward the end. The Golden Knights should be happy to have gotten to intermission tied.

Washington did a great job defending the area of the ice right in front of Braden Holtby. This heat map shows where Vegas fired shots from (and, more importantly, where it didn’t):

James Neal’s goal came on a rush. Otherwise, the Knights haven’t had good chances in close. In fact, they had exactly one high-danger chance all period, according to the analytics tracking site Natural Stat Trick. Washington had five on the other end.

First period

Updates denote time remaining in the period:

2:33: WAS 1, VGK 1

The game is tied. In a four-on-four, Vegas had all four guys bunched up in the faceoff circle to the left of Marc-Andre Fleury. The puck eventually came to a wide-open Michal Kempny, who slid it back across to a similarly wide-open Lars Eller, who shot into an empty net. That’s the sixth goal of the playoffs for Eller, but the play was all Kempny.

Fleury over-committed just a bit to Kempny, too:

3:17: VGK 1, WAS 0

After Marc-Andre Fleury made a save through a screen, a scrum broke out in front of the Vegas goaltender. Might be an escalation from this hit a few minutes ago:

Evgeny Kuznetsov hasn’t returned.

Both teams wound up with penalties out of the meeting in front of Fleury. Deryk Engelland and T.J. Oshie went to the box for roughing, so they’ll play four-on-four for two minutes.

5:18: VGK 1, WAS 0

In some terrifying news for the Capitals, Evgeny Kuznetsov just skated off in pain, grabbing at his left arm, after a high hit from Vegas defenseman Brayden McNabb.

6:37: VGK 1, WAS 0

The Capitals have shown some life in the last few minutes. Marc-Andre Fleury had to make a nice stop through a screen against Alex Ovechkin. This puck somehow stayed out:

9:51: VGK 1, WAS 0

Shots on goal so far: 8-4, Vegas, all at even strength.

12:02: VGK 1, WAS 0

Goal, Vegas. James Neal scored on the rush from the left circle after tracking down a lobbed pass from Luca Sbisa, who flicked it down ice from deep in his own end.

Washington defenseman Dmitry Orlov did a really poor job, failing to keep both Neal and the puck in front of him in a one-on-one. Orlov was trying to play the puck with his glove, a fair decision given that it was high in the air. But he botched it and sprang Neal.

Vegas has scored first in each of its nine playoff home games.

15:18: WAS 0, VGK 0

Both teams have had a few good looks. Vegas’ best one just came on a point-blank wrister from the slot by James Neal, but he put it into Braden Holtby’s body. Shortly before that, Ryan Carpenter had a chance to score on a redirection from right in front of the Capitals goalie. Both Holtby and Marc-Andre Fleury are sharp in the early going.

18:05: WAS 0, VGK 0

There have already been six hits in this game, on the heels of a physical Game 1. Expect both teams to throw their weight around, maybe including a Vegas response to Capitals winger Tom Wilson. In Game 1, Wilson put a mean, high, maybe illegal hit on Vegas winger Jonathan Marchessault. He wasn’t suspended, and he might walk a bit of a line tonight.

19:46: WAS 0, VGK 0

Game 2 is underway. Braden Holtby quickly held a shot by Deryk Engelland 14 seconds in.

Pregame

Washington’s starting lineup: Forwards Alex Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov, and Tom Wilson, with defensemen Matt Niskanen and Dmitry Orlov and goalie Braden Holtby.

Vegas’ starting lineup: Forwards Jonathan Marchessault, William Karlsson, and Reilly Smith, with defensemen Brayden McNabb and Brayden McNabb and goalie Marc-Andre Fleury.

The Golden Knights are going through another elaborate pregame show involving a cosplaying medieval knight, like this one they put on before Game 1:

The Capitals roll with their usual lineup:

And the Golden Knights pretty much do, too:

The operative change for Vegas from Game 1: Winger David Perron is up on the second line with left wing James Neal and center Erik Haula, and Alex Tuch is down from that second line to work alongside Ryan Carpenter and former Capital Cody Eakin.

Preview

The Vegas Golden Knights and Washington Capitals played one of the most exciting hockey games all year in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final, and they’ll renew hostilities for Game 2 on Wednesday. The game is set for 8 p.m. ET on NBCSN (live streaming via NBC Sports and fuboTV) from T-Mobile Arena.

The first meeting between the two teams was a fun one, and almost entirely out of control. That seems to be what Vegas is going for with their over-the-top (and great) introductions, and Game 1 delivered on the hype. Michael Buffer did his thing, and then the Knights did their thing.

Braden Holtby and Marc-Andre Fleury both made their share of saves in the first meeting, but both also allowed plenty of goals. For the first time in a long time, both goalies looked very beatable, and the five goals allowed by Holtby is something he surely won’t forget going into Game 2.

Tomas Nosek had two goals for the Knights, with all of William Karlsson, Ryan Reaves, Reilly Smith, and Colin Miller notching goals in the game as well. One of them was an empty-netter near the end of regulation, so it was more like a 5-4 victory, and was a very close outing.

Vegas has the home-ice advantage, and they’ll be hoping for a less exciting game overall on Wednesday — they’d like to not allow four goals themselves, after all.

Below is all you need to know to watch the action on Wedensday.

How to watch Golden Knights vs. Capitals Game 2

Location: T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas

Game time: 8 p.m. ET

TV: NBC, CBC, SN, TVA Sports

Announcers: Doc Emrick, Eddie Olczyk, Pierre McGuire on NBC

Online streaming: NBC Sports, fuboTV



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