LAS VEGAS — In the name of the father, and of the son, and of Braden Holtby, the Stanley Cup Final is all tied up.
The Capitals were left counting their blessings and thanking their goalie for salvaging a split in Sin City on Wednesday after having come mere inches from yet another crippling collapse. Holtby's miraculous stick save on the Golden Knights' Alex Tuch in the waning minutes of Game 2 — explained later by coach Barry Trotz as the work of the "hockey gods" maintaining equilibrium — preserved Washington's 3-2 win and helped send their series against Vegas back to D.C. even at one game apiece.
The play that will go down in Caps playoff lore got its start from a fortuitous bounce on a dump-in off the end boards with two minutes remaining in regulation. The puck caromed directly to a rushing Cody Eakin, who dished it over to Tuch, who was waiting, wide-open, in the high slot. Holtby and defenseman John Carlson, the only obstacle between the two Knights, barely had time to recoil when Tuch released his one-timer toward the gaping net.
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What happened next was larceny of the highest order as Holtby pivoted across the crease and extended his right arm, an instant-classic save that will flash across highlight reels and join the like of Mike Richter and Dominik Hasek on lists of the all-time greatest in the Stanley Cup Final.
SAVE. OF. THE. YEAR! #ALLCAPS #StanleyCup pic.twitter.com/OCBBQoEPMI
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) May 31, 2018
Another record crowd of 18,702 at T-Mobile Arena, raucous all night in between the Imagine Dragons pregame concert and the usual appearances by an assortment of Vegas celebrities, reacted in unison. The Jumbotron displayed "GOAL" in big, obnoxious lettering. Referee Chris Rooney was quick to disappoint. Suddenly, the luck of the Golden Knights had run out, at least for one game, as Holtby put the finishing touches on his 37-save masterpiece.
"Thank God he's our goalie," captain Alex Ovechkin said succinctly, unable to explain the phenomenon. His reaction from the bench did all the talking, anyway.
Holtby with a larcenous save, and Ovechkin's reaction is priceless 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/Q0JQYw4xOf
— Hockey Central (@HockeyCentraI) May 31, 2018
"It was a strange play because these boards have been really true," Holtby said of the save. "It was kind of one of those things we’ve been trying to get up on the glass in a hurry because goalies usually stay in the net. (Vegas' Marc-Andre) Fleury has been coming out a lot to get those because they’ve been so true. I tried to get something there, try to seal where I thought someone would shoot that. Luckily it hit me."
Holtby's performance most likely wasn't a product of divine intervention, but Capitals fans might start warming to the idea that maybe their prayers are finally in the process of being answered following year after year of postseason heartache, because make no mistake: This was a game those old Caps would have lost.
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Evgeny Kuznetsov, their top-line center and playoff scoring leader, played only 4:26 before exiting in the first period with what the Capitals called only an "upper-body" injury. He went to the locker room favoring his left arm and didn't return to the game. The Caps resorted to a trickle-up effect to fill out their scoring lines while trailing 1-0.
They've been forced into this before, when Nicklas Backstrom missed parts of five games against the Penguins and Lightning, so players knew the drill.
Backstrom moved up to center Ovechkin and Tom Wilson on the top line and Lars Eller, who chipped in seven points in Backstrom's absence earlier in the playoffs, jumped back into a scoring role flanked by Jakub Vrana and T.J. Oshie. They didn't miss a beat.
Eller netted the equalizer with 2:33 to go in the first period off a perfect feed from Michal Kempny, which caught a previously unflappable Fleury way out of the crease.
1️⃣ Goal
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) May 31, 2018
2️⃣ Assists
3️⃣ Points
Yup, Lars Eller is your @GatoradeCanada Performer of the Night! #CoolAsIce pic.twitter.com/Rx2CbuNOpd
Ovechkin broke the tie on a power play 5:38 into the second period — a milestone, as his first goal in a Stanley Cup Final game — on an assist from Eller, who then set up defenseman Brooks Orpik for the eventual game-winning goal. Orpik, the unlikeliest of scorers, stepped into the rush and fired a shot from the right circle. It was Orpik's first goal since February 2016 (his first in the playoffs since 2014), and it sent the Capitals' bench into a tizzy.
"I screamed," Oshie said. "A leader of our team, who's just one of those old-school, ultimate pro guys. I've only played with three or four. He's one of those guys. To see him get rewarded on the score sheet, it's exciting to me."
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Asked why the bench celebration was so spirited, Eller offered a wry smile.
"Brooksie doesn't score a lot of goals," he said. "That was a huge one and you need guys like that to have success in the playoffs. You need guys to chip in, and sometimes they need to chip in ways they don’t always do."
Lars Eller with three points. Brooks Orpik playing like he's John Carlson. These are things that don't usually break in the Capitals' favor, but somehow have this postseason.
"I think this group has learned so much. We’ve gotten so resilient," Trotz told reporters when asked how they've managed to sort through adversity this year rather than crumble. "I don’t think there’s too many of the people who are up here in the hockey world thought that when we lost Nicklas Backstrom in the Pittsburgh series the Washington Capitals could get past that round, and then we got to do that a couple rounds.
"This group has had everything thrown at them and just said, 'You know what, we're going to push on.'"
Speaking of having everything thrown at him, Holtby's rebound from a Game 1 slip-up — and "The Save," as social media had dubbed it — could become a seminal moment in this series. Shea Theodore scored near the end of the second period to make it a one-goal game. As the Golden Knights swarmed in the third, Holtby stopped shot after shot as the Golden Knights managed 15 compared to the Capitals' six.
The Capitals even survived a 1-minute, 9-second 5-on-3, suddenly displaying a confidence in their ability to kill penalties. That had been a glaring weakness against the Lightning and Penguins, when they were trending at just 75.4 percent.
"I don’t know where the confidence comes from," Trotz joked. "I was praying like crazy."
With Holtby on top of his game, maybe those prayers are no longer necessary. Quite literally, you can pinpoint the moment the Capitals' playoff campaign turned from abject first-round disaster to the cusp of the Stanley Cup, when Holtby took over the crease from Phillip Grubauer in Game 2 of the first round against the Blue Jackets and stabilized it. He has gone 13-7 since with a .924 save percentage (.935 at even strength), including back-to-back shutouts to close out the Lightning in the conference finals.
For a series so high-scoring — the first two games have seen more goals (15) than any Stanley Cup Final since 1982, when the Islanders and Canucks combined for 21 goals in Games 1 and 2 — the Capitals can find comfort in one goal that didn't go in. Maybe that's not something that should be explained.
"To me, it was the hockey gods. They evened it up from last game when (the Golden Knights) tied it up and we didn't," Trotz said, referring to Ryan Reaves' goal in Game 1 that was allowed to stand despite a blatant cross-check. "I always say, if we play the right way, the hockey gods always sort things out."
