Vegas Surge To Game One Win

There had been a lot of interest going into the opening game of the Stanley Cup finals, with two teams facing off who've never been here before. Boy, game one didn't disappoint. It had a little bit of everything: big hits, big goals, great saves and great defensive plays. It was a high flying hockey game right from the get go, with teams trading goals in the opening period.

Both teams scored twice in the opening period. The first goal came from Vegas Golden Knights defenceman Colin Miller whose slap shot went past Capitals goaltender Braden Holtby. Washington struck back later in the period as both Brett Connolly and Nicklas Backstrom scored 42 seconds apart. William Karlsson then snuck the puck in between Holtby and the left post to tie the game.

Early in the second period, a rebound off the glass came to Deryk Engelland who passed to an open Reilly Smith firing one past Holtby. Capitals defenceman John Carlson tied up the score after some nice passing from the defender and T. J. Oshie left himself wide open for the goal. In the third period, Tom Wilson redirected Alexander Ovechkin's shot past Vegas goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury to take the lead in the game. However, Vegas responded 1:41 later as Ryan Reaves went top-shelf to tie the game yet again.

Tomas Nosek, a fourth liner for most of the year, did this about half way through the third:

Nosek would score again into an empty net to seal the win in the opener for Vegas.

You could kind of tell that Washington was a little nervous going into this series. Ovechkin even said it that it would take Washington a game to get used to facing an opponent they've only seen twice this year. They haven't played each other since the meeting in DC in February, so it may have thrown Washington off their game just a little. You could see the Caps getting their chances late in the game, nobody had a better one then Lars Eller, who was by himself at the side of the net, but got tied up by a Vegas defender at the last second to prevent him from scoring.

Yes, there was also a case to be made that some officiating was questionable in this game. Four minor penalties were called in this entire game, but the biggest one that WASN'T called came late in the 3rd period. Ryan Reaves got away with an egregious cross-check on Capitals defenseman John Carlson before he scored his third-period goal on the doorstep against Holtby. Honestly, hope that the officiating crew can get it together and not miss calls that bad the rest of the series.

Vegas got a great performance from their bottom six, Washington is going to have to do that if they want to have any chance to get back in this series.