Monday, April 1, 2019

Capitals Surprised By Panthers

     The Florida Panthers hosted the defending Stanley Cup champion Washington Capitals and outmuscled them 5-3 at BB&T Center on Monday night. The Panthers were able to sweep the three-game season series against the Caps for the first time ever. It was the final road game of the season for the Capitals who remain in first place inside the Metropolitan Division. 
     Florida(36-32-12) moved in front 1-0 with 6:12 left in the first period. Colton Scviour kicked the puck from the left side of the crease to the low slot. Frank Vatrano put in a wrist shot by Phoenix Copley for his 24th goal of the season.
     The Cats expanded their lead to 2-0 at the 3:34 mark. The Capitals swept the puck away from their crease area and Jonathan Huberdeau snapped a shot from the low slot for his 28th goal of the campaign. 
     Washington(47-25-8) surrendered a shorthanded goal with 7:59 remaining in the second period and trailed by three goals. Aleksander Barkov was in the neutral zone and made a cross-ice pass to Vincent Trocheck. He skated into the Caps zone and fired a shot for his ninth goal of the year and 100th career goal.
     The Panthers continued to dominate as they extended their gap to 4-0 with 2:03 to go. Vatrano sent a cross-ice pass from the low right circle to Barkov in the low left circle. He centered it where Troy Brouwer scored on a one-time snap shot.
     The Capitals attempted to make a comeback in the third period. John Carlson took a slap shot from the right point that was deflected in by Evgeny Kuznetsov from the slot at 10:55. They cut it to 4-2 when T.J. Oshie backhanded a pass through the slot and Nikolas Backstrom nailed a snap shot from the low slot by Roberto Luongo with 3:35 remaining.
     Washington decided to add an extra attacker at the three-minute mark. They pulled it to 4-3 with 2:21 left Jakub Vrana scored from close range.
     The Caps again pulled their goalie, however it did not work. Trocheck got his second tally of the contest as he scored an empty-net goal with 26.5 seconds to go. Barkov compiled his 94th point of the season which tied the franchise record set by Pavel Bure back in 1999-2000. 

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