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Capitals beat Knights to capture first Stanley Cup title
LAS VEGAS, June 8, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Lars Eller scored with 7:37 left in the
third period Thursday to lift the Washington Capitals to a 4-3 win over the
Vegas Golden Knights and their first ever Stanley Cup title.
Eller and Devante Smith-Pelly scored third period goals just 2:31 apart as
the Capitals came from behind in game five to beat the expansion Golden
Knights four games to one and capture their first National Hockey League
championship in their 44-year franchise history.
The title ends years of heartbreak not only for the NHL team but for the
city of Washington as it had been over 26 years since a major sports team
from the US capital had won a championship.
It also marks the first Stanley Cup title for Russian star Alex Ovechkin,
who scored his team-leading 15th playoff goal in the second period and was
named Most Valuable Player of the 2018 playoffs.
The Capitals won their 10th game on the road in the postseason to equal
the league record which had been set four times previously, most recently by
the 2012 Los Angeles Kings.
Washington, who entered the league as an expansion team in 1974, ended the
miraculous postseason run of the Knights, who are just the third NHL team in
league history to reach the finals in their inaugural season.
They join the Toronto Arenas and St. Louis Blues, but the Golden Knights
had a much more difficult road to get there.
The Arenas did it in the league’s first ever postseason and Blues were
part of a division comprised of all expansion teams in the late 1960s.
Czech forward Jakub Vrana had the other Capitals goal as he opened the
scoring in the second period after the teams failed to produce a goal in a
tight-checking first period.
The series was physical throughout and there were even some fireworks in
the pre-game warmup Thursday when Ovechkin skated by Vegas goalie Marc-Andre
Fleury and tapped his right pad.
Fleury retaliated with a slash of his own as the two met near centre ice.
BSS/AFP/MR/1020 hrs