Caps and Cats Tangle in Game 3

May 7 vs. Florida Panthers at Capital One Arena
Game 3, Eastern Conference Quarterfinal Series (Series tied, 1-1)
Time: 1:00 p.m.
TV: NBCSW, ESPN
Radio:Capitals Radio 24/7, 106.7 The Fan
Washington Capitals (44-26-12)
Florida Panthers (58-18-6)

Two games into their best-of-seven, first-round Stanley Cup Playoff series, the Caps and the Florida Panthers have split a pair of contests in south Florida. Now the series shifts to Washington for the next two games, starting with Saturday afternoon's matinee match in Game 3 of the set at Capital One Arena.
With the series effectively now a best-of-five set, the two teams will now wrangle for momentum and control of the series on Saturday in the District.
"It's different coming into our rink in the playoffs than the regular season," says Caps forward Marcus Johansson. "It's the way the fans support us and how loud it is. I remember that from last time I was here. So we're going to have to take advantage of these two home games, and that's what we're planning to do."
Washington played the game it wanted to play for the first four and a half periods of the six stanzas played to this point of the series, but after an impressive Game 1 win on Tuesday, the Caps weren't able to parlay a strong start in Game 2 into a commanding 2-0 series lead.
Held to just three shots on net in the first 16 minutes of Game 2, Florida's dormant but deadly attack suddenly came to life late in the first period. They got a bounce on their first goal, and the Caps desperately needed a save on the third one, but Florida twice struck for two goals on as many shots in less than 130 seconds, doing so late in the first period and again late in the second.
By the time the dust settled, the Panthers scored five goals on 13 shots in 21 minutes and 12 seconds of playing time. And even though they were held off the board the rest of the way after Carter Verhaeghe made it 5-1 with 2:28 left in the second period, the Panthers still outshot the Caps by a lopsided count of 20-3 the rest of the way.
"They had nine shots on net [midway through the second]; that's on us," says Laviolette of the Caps' third-period performance. "They didn't unlock us, that's on us. Our energy tanked, and we just dipped a little bit, so we've got to get that back. That was more on us than on them, and so we've got to do a better job inside of just going out in that third period and playing a better period than what we did. That's on us."
As the eighth seed in the East going up against the Presidents' Trophy-winning Panthers, the Caps can be disappointed about the outcome of Game 2, but they can also be pleased with their overall performance to date in the series, and with getting the series home all even.
"I think when we look back at the two games, we don't like the last 25 minutes of [Thursday] night's game," says Laviolette. "I don't like the score in the first 35 minutes of [Thursday] night's game. But we did a lot of good things. And so I think there's some things that we can definitely clean up, and some changes can make and move forward."
Despite playing without right wing Tom Wilson (lower body injury) since the first period of Game 1, Washington has had the better of the six periods in the series to date. The Caps flew back from Florida on Friday morning, their focus fully turned to Game 3. With Wilson still listed as day-to-day and the goalie pendulum swinging once again, they've got plenty to consider before Saturday's early start.
"We're just working through the game from [Thursday] night," says Laviolette, "and so we're going to evaluate everything - the way the game was played, and what we need in the lineup, and what we'll do, and certainly goaltending is a part of it."
In the wake of the Wilson injury, the Caps summoned right wing Brett Leason from AHL Hershey. Laviolette is typically a believer in doing the least amount of line disruption possible when subbing players in for whatever reason, particularly when things are going well. But losing a player as unique and as useful as Wilson - he literally plays in every situation - causes a ripple effect no one player can fill.
"When you lose a player like Tom, it's tough," says Laviolette. "And so it forces you to juggle a little bit, and going back to not just the goaltender, but we're looking back at the lines and we will evaluate that. And so we'll make those decisions [Friday] on the way home, and we'll be ready for [Saturday].
"It would have been great if you could have just moved from Game 1 to Game 2 and had the same lineup, but that that opportunity wasn't there and it wasn't present, so we need to move forward."
As they move forward, they take with them some confidence in the way they've played for most of the first two games, and the belief that they can continue to hold their own defensively against the Panthers, possessors of the NHL's most potent offense since 1995-96.
"I think we played - [Thursday] night too, the first half of the game - we played a really good game," says Johansson. "On the first [goal], they got a lucky bounce and then it got away from us a little bit after that. But that's hockey. When we played the way we wanted to, we've been in the games and I think we've controlled what we wanted to control, and we'll take that with us for sure."
Frustrated for much of the first four and a half periods of the series, Florida is understandably taking heart in its midgame offensive surge from Game 2.
"[In Game 1], I don't think it was the effort," says Panthers interim coach Andrew Brunette of his team. "It was just a little bit of the focus and I think we got a little bit ahead of ourselves, and kind of got nervous maybe a little bit, and we got out of our rhythm of how we wanted to play. And I thought [Thursday] early on, we weren't as sharp as we'd like to be. But we grinded it out and that's a really good building block for our group here.
"I knew we would get our game, but it caught me off guard that we came out a little nervous and weren't quite sharp. But we found it, and [Jonathan Huberdeau] made a heck of a play to get us going there on a big goal. I didn't like the undisciplined penalties, but we killed it and went to work."