All-around Effort earns Washington 3-0 win in Game 6
NHL
Two goals from T.J. Oshie and 24 saves from Braden Holtby helped the Washington Capitals force Game 7 in the Eastern Conference Final with a 3-0 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning Monday night.
Things were looking good after the first two games of the series for the Capitals. They took a 2-0 series lead with two wins in Tampa. However, the Lightning roared back with three straight wins to force a must-win for Washington in Game 6. And the Caps did just that.
As expected, Washington came out of the gate a desperate team. Led by captain Alex Ovechkin, they stymied and pushed the Lightning around from the start. Tampa was only able to muster six shots on goal in the opening period. The Lightning, though, also played a tight defensive game in the first, allowing only eight shots on goal in a scoreless first.
In the second period, the Capitals found their offensive game.
Washington would fire 15 shots on goal in the middle frame. However, it looked like the home team would come away empty-handed as Tampa goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy was on his game. Oshie, though, made sure that wouldn’t be the case.
With 4:48 remaining in the second, the 31-year-old scored on the power-play to give the Caps a 1-0 lead. It was Oshie’s sixth goal of the postseason.
That would give Washington a 1-0 advantage going into the final period.
The Lightning would then make a push to tie in the game in the third. They upped the pressure and forced Holtby to make some quality stops in the first half of the period. Just over halfway through the third, though, the Capitals would extend their lead.
With 9:58 left in the game, Devante Smith-Pelly netted his fourth of the playoffs to give the home team a 2-0 lead. Smith-Pelly started the play deep in his defensive zone by flipping the puck out of the zone. He would then hustle up ice and fire an uncontested one-timer past Vasilevskiy.
Oshie would then seal the win for Washington with an empty-net goal with just 49.7 seconds left in the game.
It was one of the Capitals’ best defensive games this season, as they only allowed 24 shots on goal. It was also their most physical, as they outhit Tampa 39-19.
While he only faced 24 shots, Holtby was solid in goal after three straight losses. The shutout was his first this season, regular season and playoffs, and his fifth in his playoff career.
For the Lightning, it was the first time this postseason they were shutout. They haven’t scored a goal since early in the second period of Game 5, a span of 99:27 of game play.
The series will now come to an end in Game 7 Wednesday night (8 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, SN1, TVAS). The winner will then face the Vegas Golden Knights in the Stanley Cup Final, which gets underway next Monday.
This article was originally written by former TSJ101SPORTS NHL Department Head and writer Carlos Medellin. Due to systems modalities, the article has been assigned to the author tag designation “Former Writers”.
