Capitals backup goalie stifles Panthers as Florida falls behind 2-1 in first round series

The Washington Capitals benching starting goalie Vitek Vanecek may have been the worst thing to happen to the top-seeded Florida Panthers.

Ilya Samsonov – who replaced Vanecek -- made 29 saves for his first career playoff victory on Saturday as eighth-seeded Washington defeated the visiting Panthers, 6-1.

Samsonov, a 25-year-old Russian native who was Washington’s first-round pick in 2015, went 0-3 in his first playoffs exposure last season. Samsonov began this series as the backup to Vanecek. But since getting inserted into the lineup in the third period of Game 2 on Thursday, Samsonov has stopped 45 of 46 shots.

“Their goalie was making some huge saves, (especially on Aleksander Barkov),” said winger Jonathan Huberdeau, who scored the Panthers’ only goal. “We could have gone up 2-1 (on Barkov’s shot). They go on the other end and score. That’s hockey.”

Indeed, the Capitals scored six straight goals after Huberdeau’s tally. The Capitals lead the best-of-seven first-round playoff series 2-1, and Game 4 is set for Washington D.C. on Monday night.

Panthers interim coach Andrew Brunette doesn’t think his team’s problem is Samsonov.

“He played really good, but I don’t think we got in front of him enough,” said Brunette, who added that he expected the goalie switch. “I don’t know if we got inside enough or got any rebounds. We (normally) score a lot of goals in that area.”

Sam Reinhart led the Panthers with five shots on goal, but he picked up no points. Teammate Claude Giroux was quiet with no shots on goal and a game-worst minus-three rating.

The Panthers also went 0-for-3 on their power play. After leading the NHL in goals this season, Florida’s offense has been shut down in two of the three games in this series, and it starts with a 0-for-9 performance with the man advantage against Washington.

“We have to start scoring goals – 0-for-9 is unacceptable,” Huberdeau said. “We have to make some adjustments. We had some chances, and we didn’t capitalize.

“We have skill. We have talent. We have to execute. No excuses.”

The Capitals got goals from T.J. Oshie, Marcus Johansson, Trevon Van Riemsdyk, Alex Ovechkin, John Carlson (empty-netter) and Garnet Hathaway.

Oshie and Ovechkin scored on the Washington power play, which went 2-for-5 in this game and is 4-for-11 in the series.

Nicklas Backstrom and Anthony Mantha added two assists each.

The Panthers got 22 saves from Sergei Bobrovsky.

Early on, things looked great for the Panthers as Huberdeau scored just 2:45 into the first period. Ovechkin put a heavy hit on Huberdeau. Eight seconds later, Huberdeau was on the other end of the ice, zipping a shot past Samsonov’s glove. Anthony Duclair’s cross-ice pass unleashed Huberdeau, who was unfazed by the Ovechkin hit.

But things started to turn for the Panthers when defenseman MacKenzie Weegar was penalized with just 33 seconds left in the first period. Weegar was called for holding the stick of Washington’s Hathaway, who would’ve had a shorthanded breakaway.

Seven seconds and two passes later, Oshie scored his power-play goal, tying the score 1-1. Oshie won the face-off and then deflected in a long shot from Ovechkin.

Johansson scored with 10:09 left in the second period to give Washington a 2-1 lead. The sequence started when Barkov’s aforementioned shot at the doorstep was stopped by Samsonov.

The Capitals came right back on the rush. Mantha’s backhander was stopped by Bobrovsky’s left pad, but that gave a juicy rebound right to Johansson.

The Capitals made it 3-1 with just 71 seconds left in the second. The sequence started with Weegar losing the puck deep in his own end. Mantha got the steal, which led to Backstrom’s shot. Bobrovsky stopped that one, but Johansson retrieved the rebound and got the assist as Van Riemsdyk scored from the left circle.

After an interference penalty on Huberdeau, the Capitals made it 4-1 on Ovechkin’s blast from the left circle with 9:35 left in the third.

It was Ovechkin’s first goal of the series, but it led to a few questions about stopping the Capitals star.

“It was a broken play,” Brunette said. “So far in the series, we’ve done a good job of shading that way (toward Ovechkin). He’s arguably the greatest scorer of all time. It was a 50-50 puck that we lost. (The Caps found Ovechkin), and he’s not going to miss from there very often.”

Carlson’s empty-netter with 4:20 left nailed down the win for Washington, and Hathaway’s rebound goal with 42 seconds left provided the final margin.