Capitals at Islanders
After watching his team even its Eastern Conference first-round series without him, Braden Holtby plans to help the Washington Capitals gain the advantage when they visit the New York Islanders for Game 3 on Sunday afternoon. Sidelined with an illness, Holtby witnessed rookie Philipp Grubauer make 18 saves in his playoff debut and Jason Chimera score the go-ahead goal in the Capitals' 4-3 victory in Game 2 on Friday.
"I didn't stop shaking until 20 minutes after the game," said Holtby, who was able to take part in a brief practice on Saturday. Holtby had a good reason for his nerves as Washington yielded three of the first four goals on Friday before captain Alex Ovechkin scored late in the second period and Nicklas Backstrom and Chimera tallied nearly four minutes apart early in the third. "In the beginning, we were pretty aggressive. We got a 3-1 lead and we got a little less aggressive," Islanders captain John Tavares said. "The second half of that game wasn't our best."
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ABOUT THE CAPITALS: Backstrom, who scored on Friday for his first goal since Feb. 19, converted on the power play for the first time in the postseason since May 9, 2009 versus Pittsburgh. The Swede added two assists to record his fourth career three-point performance in a playoff game. Ovechkin netted his franchise-best 32nd career postseason goal and Chimera matched the Russian superstar by scoring his fifth career playoff game-winning tally.
ABOUT THE ISLANDERS: Ryan Strome joined some pretty impressive company by scoring in each of his first two career playoff games, as only Jean Potvin (1975), Mike Bossy (1978) and Brent Sutter (1982) accomplished the feat for the franchise, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Tavares has notched an assist in both contests, continuing his strong surge after finishing the regular season with a six-game point streak. Josh Bailey also is enjoying a strong run, finishing the campaign with an assist in each of his final three contests before scoring a goal and setting up two others in the first two games of the series.
OVERTIME
1. Washington D Matt Niskanen notched a pair of assists on Friday to atone for his minus-4 rating in the series opener.
2. Game 3 has not been kind to New York, which has dropped seven of eight decisions dating to an overtime victory over the Capitals in 1993.
3. Ovechkin recorded a team-high eight hits in Game 2.