Barzal's OT Winner puts Caps in 0-3 Series Hole

Seconds after Washington's Jakub Vrana was denied on a breakaway and a follow-up early in overtime of Sunday's Game 3, Isles center Mathew Barzal tore off in the opposite direction, gained the zone, cut to the cage and beat Braden Holtby to lift the Isles to a 2-1 win and a commanding 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven set.

From neutral ice, Jordan Eberle sprung Barzal in the Washington zone and behind the defensive duo of John Carlson and Brendan Dillon, and it was over.

"I run that play a little bit in practice, or even in games," explains Barzal. "Just try to sneak behind the [defense] a little bit, and time it perfectly on the blueline. Great play by [Eberle], great touch on the pass. I've had that play a few times this year, and I look five-hole or look short side. I decided to take this one to the far post, and it paid off."

"It's the kind of play that you like to read to see if it's a breakaway or if it's an angled shot," recounts Holtby. "He brought it to his forehand, and I thought he was going to probably run out of space, and try to sneak it five-hole. I was trying to be patient, and he made a quick move to the middle."

Holtby deserved a better fate; he kept the Caps in the game, and it took two great plays to beat him on both New York goals. Sunday's loss marked Holtby's 46th career setback in the playoffs, and 17 of them have come in games in which he has allowed two or fewer goals against.

Washington played a better overall game on Sunday, but it still wasn't enough for them to get a win against the Islanders, who have been the better team in all three contests. Now, the Caps have no remaining margin for error.

"We discussed it immediately after, and right now we just have to focus on getting one win," says Caps coach Todd Reirden. "One win, and staying alive here and keep moving forward. That's where our focus will be and is right now."

Early in the contest, the Caps didn't allow their dormant attack much of a chance to get started, taking three penalties in the first period. No Washington forward was able to muster a shot on net at even strength, and Nick Jensen's shot from 44 feet away in the game's second minute was the closest of the Caps' half a dozen shots on net in the first.

New York forged a 1-0 lead on an offensive zone shift in the latter half of the opening frame. After Holtby stopped both Brock Nelson and Anders Lee from in tight - another shot from close range hit the post in this sequence - and then Lee cashed in after New York went low to high with the puck. The Caps had bodies in front, but Adam Pelech made a precision pass through a maze of sticks and skates, right to Lee for a tap-in tally from the top of the paint and a 1-0 Islanders lead at 14:50.

"Whenever the puck goes side to side, as a defenseman you're always looking back door," explains Pelech. "And a guy like [Lee] plants himself there, and he's tough to move. That's always your first look as a defenseman, and he put himself in a great spot, and I just had to get it there for him."

Lee knew that if he could get the puck, he'd have a golden opportunity to get the game's first goal.

"It's just a great look," says the Islanders' captain. "[Pelech] had his head up the whole way, he saw that opening there. Yeah, I gave him a little bit of a yell, but I think that helps sometimes. Sometimes you've got to be careful too, because that can draw some coverage. But [Pelech] made a hall of an effort and just a great play for me there."

Holtby walled off the Islanders for the remainder of regulation, making a number of strong saves and keeping the Caps in the game, in particular on key stops on Lee late in the second and Nelson in the waning ticks of regulation.

But Washington's offense - second in the league during the regular season and still populated with six of the team's top seven scorers from the Cup run of 2018, Nicklas Backstrom notwithstanding - wasn't able to generate any offense at all at even strength for the second time in three games in the series.

Washington was able to get the game tied up on the first of its two power play opportunities on the afternoon. From the top of the right circle, Evgeny Kuznetsov surveyed briefly, then called his own number, slinging a shot to the top shelf on the short side to even the game at 1-1 at 5:50 of the second.

The Caps seemed to draw some life from that goal, as Vrana put the first shot from a Washington forward at even strength on goal on the ensuing shift, and several more followed in short order before Radko Gudas was boxed for hooking at 11:10. Of the 13 even-strength shots on goal from Washington forwards on the afternoon, five of them came in a span of just over three minutes in between the Kuznetsov goal and the Gudas minor.

Nevertheless, the Caps went into the third all even, and just a shot away from taking a lead. But after a couple of early shots from Kuznetsov and Vrana in the third, a nine-minute dry spell ensued, two minutes of which was spent withstanding a New York power play, during which the Isles held the zone for virtually the entire two minutes.

The Caps managed a total of only four shots on net in the third, and none during their second and final power play chance of the game. Kuznetsov's goal came on the only power-play shot of the afternoon for Washington.

Fifteen seconds into overtime, Alex Ovechkin notched his first shot of the afternoon, and just under four minutes later, Vrana had his two glorious opportunities, the best chances for any Washington skater all game.

But 18 seconds after Semyon Varlamov snuffed out Vrana's follow-up, the game was over, and Washington's hole in the series became as deep as it can be.

"Obviously we have to keep then game 5-on-5 for longer," assesses Reirden. "Obviously the penalties in the first didn't allow us to get much going. After that, we started to do some things. I thought we did a better job of putting pucks in deep today, and we got some more of them back.

"But there's got to be a full game of that, and we've got to not overuse our guys that are penalty killers, and keep some of our top guys off the ice that aren't killing penalties. That's important for us, and then it's then urgency and desperation to keep things alive for our team here."