Everyone in South Florida has some different emotions after Saturday’s game. Some are anxious, some have given up, but some are not losing hope till the fat lady has sung.
The Florida Panthers’ trip to DC, while looking to take a 2-1 lead, took a turn for the worst in Game 3. Florida was blown out on Saturday afternoon in a bounce back effort by the Capitals, 6-1.
First Period:
The Panthers would actually get off to a fast start, as they would draw first blood 2:45 in when Jonathan Huberdeau skated into the offensive zone and sent a slapper in the top corner.
The turning point of the game came with 33 seconds remaining when MacKenzie Weegar received a questionable penalty for holding the stick. This would pave the way for the Caps, as when they got on the power play, they would tie the game at one when a feed from Alex Ovechkin would get tipped by TJ Oshie past Sergei Bobrovsky.
Second Period:
Despite the Panthers allowing the late first period goal, they got their momentum going early in the second. However, despite two power plays, Ilya Samsonov stayed strong.
The Caps would take a 2-1 lead halfway through the second, and would never look back. Anthony Mantha would set up a feed to get to the net, and he would then pass it to Marcus Johansson, who would slip a backhander top shelf past Bobrovsky.
Washington would extend their lead to 3-1 with a little over a minute when Trevor van Riemsdyk would shoot a wicked one from the faceoff circle.
Third Period:
There was still hope for the ‘Comeback Cats’ heading into the third, but those dreams would slowly dwindle.
There would not be much action early on in the third, but that would change towards the middle. Jonathan Huberdeau would get called for an interference call around nine minutes in. With around 30 seconds into the power play, Alex Ovechkin would break open and beat Bobrovsky to make it 4-1.
Hope was pretty much gone for the Cats when Anthony Duclair had the chance to make it 4-2 on a wide open net, but he whiffed it wide.
Bobrovsky would get pulled to add an extra skater, but it would not make a difference as John Carlson would shoot it into the empty net to ice it at 5-1. And the Caps weren’t done as they added salt to the wound with 44 seconds remaining with a Garnet Hathaway goal. The “Sammy, Sammy” chants ran down Capital One Arena as time expired after Samsonov made 29 of 30 saves.
Next Up:
Game 4 will be in DC on Monday at 7 PM EST.