We have ourselves a series.

After dropping Game One 6-4 on Monday night, the Washington Capitals evened the Stanley Cup Final with a 3-2 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday night. It was the first Stanley Cup Final win by the Capitals in franchise history.

The Golden Knights once again opened the scoring when a great individual effort from James Neal led to a goal that made it 1-0 Vegas at the 7:58 mark of the first period. Nearly 10 minutes later, Washington tied the score after Lars Eller wristed a shot past Vegas goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury to make it 1-1.

Five minutes into the second period, the Capitals were awarded a power play after Alex Tuch cross-checked Washington defenseman John Carlson. The play was similar to the controversial no-call on Ryan Reaves’ cross-check of Carlson in Game One that led to a goal for Vegas. In an instance of karma, the penalty on Tuch led to a power play goal for the Capitals as Alex Ovechkin one-timed a shot past Fleury to give Washington a 2-1 lead. It was Ovechkin’s first goal of the Finals and his 13th of the postseason.

Four minutes later, Washington defensemen Brooks Orpik deflected the puck into the goal to extend the Capitals’ lead to 3-1 with 10:19 left in the second period.

Vegas didn’t go down without a fight, however.

With just 2:13 left in the second frame, a power play shot by Knights defensemen Shea Theodore blew past Capitals goalie Braden Holtby to cut Washington’s lead to a single goal.

Vegas needed just one goal in the third to tie the game, but Holtby and the Capitals were up to the task. After Washington committed two penalties in just over a minute of each other, the Golden Knights were given a 5-on-3 man-advantage for 1:09. Despite a couple of great looks, Vegas was unable to break through on the power play.

With two minutes left in regulation, the puck took a funny bounce in front of Holtby and ended up on the stick of Vegas forward Cody Eakin. Eakin passed it over to Tuch, who had a wide open net. At the last possible second, Holtby stopped the puck from going into the net by using the paddle of his own stick, keeping the score 3-2 in favor of Washington.

Despite several chances, the Golden Knights were unable to find the equalizing goal before time expired.

The series will now shift to Washington, D.C. as Game Three will take place on Saturday night.

After a long layoff for both teams, the Washington Capitals and Vegas Golden Knights opened the 2018 Stanley Cup Final with one of the most memorable Final games in history. For the first time ever in the championship round, a single game featured four different lead changes as the Golden Knights defeated the Capitals 6-4 to take a 1-0 series lead.

The puck dropped about 30 minutes after the originally scheduled start time due to the flashy Vegas pregame festivities. After Michael Buffer introduced both starting lineups, the Golden Knights were awarded the game’s first power play six minutes in. Vegas capitalized when Colin Miller blasted a shot from the point past Capitals goaltender Braden Holtby to give the Golden Knights a 1-0 lead at 7:15 of the opening frame.

Washington responded seven and a half minutes later when Brett Connolly deflected a shot past Vegas goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury to tie the score 1-1. Just 42 seconds later, Niklas Backstrom was able to slide a backhander past Fleury to give the Capitals a 2-1 lead with 4:37 left in the opening period.

Vegas was able to tie to score before the period ended when William Karlsson sent a wrist shot past Holtby to make it 2-2 with 1:41 left in the first, then retook the lead when Reilly Smith scored his third goal of the playoffs to make it 3-2 Vegas at 3:21 into the second period. Washington tied the score again with a John Carlson goal at 8:29 of the second.

The score was knotted at 3-3 going into the final period of regulation. Just 1:10 into the third, Tom Wilson gave the Capitals a 4-3 lead with his fourth goal of the playoffs. Just 1:31 later, however, a questionable backcheck by Vegas’ Ryan Reaves on Capitals defensemen John Carlson left him all alone in front of the Washington net. The puck found him and he was able to sneak it past Holtby to tie the score at 4-4.

Seven minutes later, Vegas defensemen Shea Theodore made a quick play to keep the puck in the offensive zone and passed it to Tomas Nosek at the side of the net. Nosek one-timed it into the net to give Vegas a 5-4 lead with 10:56 left in regulation. After a half a period of frantic play on both sides of the ice, Nosek added an empty net goal to seal the victory for the Golden Knights.

The team that has won Game One of the Final ended up winning the Cup in each of the last six years. Game Two of the series will take place Wednesday night in Vegas at 7 pm Central Time and can be seen on NBCSN.

Raise your hand if you had the Washington Capitals against the Vegas Golden Knights in the 2018 Stanley Cup Finals.

Now put your hand down, liar.

In one of the most unexpected Finals matchups ever, an all-time great player faces off against an all-time great story.

Alexander Ovechkin, perhaps the greatest goal scorer of this generation, leads the Capitals into their first Finals appearance in 20 years. On the other side, the Golden Knights are making their first Finals appearance in franchise history. Oh, it’s also their first SEASON in franchise history.

That’s right, after not having a team just 365 days ago, Vegas is playing on hockey’s biggest stage for its ultimate prize….the Stanley Cup.

Let’s look at how both teams got here.

Washington Capitals

It wasn’t an easy road for the Capitals. After falling behind 2-0 in their first round series to the Columbus Blue Jackets, Washington made a goaltending change when they benched Philip Grubauer in favor of more seasoned Braden Holtby. In a must win game three on the road, the Capitals won a double overtime thriller and never looked back. They ended up winning the next three games to advance to the next round. After defeating one of their biggest rivals, the Pittsburgh Penguins, in six games in the second round, they needed seven games to knock off the Tampa Bay Lightning to punch their tickets to their first Stanley Cup Finals appearance since 1998.

Vegas Golden Knights

The Golden Knights have taken the sports world by storm since their first ever game back in October. They finished the regular season with a 51-24-7 record and won the Pacific Division title.

They began the playoffs with a sweep over the Los Angeles Kings in the first round, then dispatched the San Jose Sharks in six games in the second round. After dropping game one of the third round on the road, the Knights won the next four to shock the Winnipeg Jets and the rest of the hockey world to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals.

My prediction

It has been eight days since the Golden Knights last played, but they’ve shown time after time that long layoffs don’t affect them very much. Their record in these playoffs is an impressive 12-3. Everybody expected them to come back down to earth ever since the season started, and it still hasn’t happened.

Their main strength is their goaltending, as Marc-Andre Fleury is having a legendary season. He has a .947 save percentage and a 1.68 goals against average, cementing himself as the front runner for the Conn Smythe Trophy for playoff MVP. Vegas’ top line of Jonathan Marchessault, William Karlsson and Reilly Smith have powered the team forward all season long, and if they continue their scoring ways they will be in great shape.

The Golden Knights might have the advantage in goaltending, but the Capitals have the slight advantage in scoring depth and star power. Ovechkin has long been criticized for his lack of meaningful wins, but this postseason has done a lot to get rid of that reputation. If he can add a Stanley Cup to his resume, he can finally be considered amongst the all-time greats of the game.

Of course, the Capitals aren’t a one man show, and players like Evgeny Kuznetsov, Niklas Backstrom and T.J. Oshie have helped carry Washington to this point.

I feel that the power play will be a big part of the final outcome of this series. The Capitals have a 28.8 percent conversation rate on the man-advantage, while the Golden Knights have a 17.6 percent conversation rate. Vegas especially will need to stay out of the box in order to have the best chance to win this series.

In the end, I’m going with the Capitals in six games.