LAS VEGAS (AP) Alex Tuch collected the skittering puck with absolutely nothing between him and the tying goal with two minutes left in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final.Braden Holtby reacted with pure instinct.Washington’s goalie stretched back and lunged to his right with his stick http://www.officialflyersproshop.com/authentic-adidas-claude-giroux-jersey , thrusting the paddle into the exact 4-inch slot of air through which Tuch’s shot was headed for the net.”Luckily it hit me,” Holtby said with a shrug.The Washington goalie’s coaches and teammates weren’t quite so calm about a save that will go down in Capitals history as the key to a 3-2 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday night, evening the series at one game apiece.The win was the Caps’ first-ever Stanley Cup Final victory – and the save might be a catalyst to even bigger things.”To me, it was the hockey gods,” Washington coach Barry Trotz said. ”They evened it up from the last game. Great save. You could see the emotion on our bench. Once he made that save, I knew we were going to win the game.”Holtby made 37 saves, but he got help from earthly sources as well. Alex Ovechkin scored a power-play goal, his first in a Final, Brooks Orpik ended a personal 220-game goal drought with the eventual winner, and Lars Eller added a goal and two assists.”We refocus and pick each other up and that’s a sign of a good team,” Holtby said. ”That’s one of our strengths.”Game 3 is Saturday night in Washington. The Caps are just 4-5 at home in the postseason, but they’ll ride a wave of momentum after going into the Golden Knights’ daunting home arena and taking away home-ice advantage in Washington’s first Stanley Cup Final in 20 years.After getting battered in the Knights’ 6-4 series-opening win, Holtby made several big saves throughout Game 2, coming up particularly big while Washington killed a 5-on-3 disadvantage for 1:09 earlier in the third period. He capped his energetic performance with that jaw-dropping stick save on Tuch with 1:59 to play.”Holts just makes the save of the year,” Washington forward Jay Beagle said. ”Maybe the save of a lifetime. It’s unreal.”The T-Mobile Arena crowd was stunned, but after several months of watching this expansion team push through every obstacle Ivan Provorov Jersey , the Knights couldn’t get around Holtby’s stick.”Thank God he’s our goalie,” Ovechkin said. ”He’s over there when we need him, and it was probably the save of the year for sure.”Washington overcame another big blow when it lost leading scorer Evgeny Kuznetsov to an upper-body injury in the first period after a big hit from Vegas defenseman Brayden McNabb, but the Caps avoided any hotheaded retaliation and concentrated on a gritty effort that was enough to even the series.James Neal and Shea Theodore scored and Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 23 shots for the upstart Knights, who couldn’t summon their usual clutch magic, even with lengthy man advantages. Thanks to Holtby’s 15 saves, Vegas finally went scoreless in the third for the first time in six periods in this series.Washington handed the Golden Knights only their second home defeat – the first in regulation – in Vegas’ nine postseason games.”I think it’s really important that we take a step back and take a deep breath and know that you’re not going to win this series in two games,” Vegas defenseman Nate Schmidt said. ”We’re a special group. We can go out and win games on the road. We’ve done it all playoffs.”So have the Capitals, who improved to 9-3 on the road after two games in this frequently chaotic series.The Caps have made the playoffs in 13 of 19 seasons since their only other trip to the Final in 1998, but hadn’t managed to get their fans back to the final round until this year. Capital One Arena in downtown Washington was packed with red-clad fans watching Game 2 on the videoboards.The temperature on the Las Vegas Strip spiked to triple digits in the hours before Game 2, likely making it the hottest Final game in NHL history. But the heat didn’t fry the spirits of the fans who filled the plaza next to the arena to capacity before the puck dropped, continuing this gambling mecca’s fanatical support of its first major pro sports team.Shortly after Neal opened the scoring for Vegas in Game 2, Kuznetsov went straight to the dressing room after absorbing a high check from McNabb. The game immediately took on a nastier tone, and the teams played 4-on-4 hockey moments later after a prolonged scrum led to two penalties.Trotz gave no postgame update on Kuznetsov’s condition.”(That hit) galvanized us as a group,” Trotz said. ”This group has learned so much. They’ve gotten so resilient. This group has had everything thrown at them, and they just say Jakub Voracek Jersey Kids , `You know what? We’re going to push on.”’Washington attacked and evened it shortly afterward with a goal from Eller, who had failed to hit an open net on a rushed play for a potential tying goal late in Game 1.Washington’s excellent power play finally got a chance early in the second period, and Ovechkin scored a vintage goal with his powerful shot from a sharp angle. The Russian superstar led the NHL with 49 goals in the regular season and added 12 more in the Eastern Conference playoffs before scoring the first Stanley Cup Final goal of his 13-year, 1,121-game NHL career.The Caps then got a thoroughly unlikely contribution from Orpik, whose deflected shot bounced fortuitously off the ice and beat Fleury. The grinding veteran forward with a 2009 Stanley Cup ring from Pittsburgh hadn’t scored since Feb. 26, 2016, adding up to the longest active goal-scoring drought in the NHL.The persistent Knights earned a power play and cut the Caps’ lead to 3-2 late in the second on Theodore’s shot through traffic.NOTES: The first two games of the Final were split for only the third time in the last 13 editions. … The Golden Knights have scored the opening goal in the first period of all nine of their postseason home games. … Washington needs three more wins to become the second team in NHL history to win a Cup after trailing in all four postseason rounds, joining Pittsburgh in 1991. … T-Mobile Arena reported 18,702 fans in the sold-out building, setting a franchise record for attendance.—More Stanley Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/tag/StanleyCupFinals DENVER (AP) — Don’t be fooled: That third-period lead isn’t so safe.Not this season, anyway. There’s been quite a comeback for the comeback.The NHL has seen 110 third-period comeback wins spanning 611 games through New Year’s Eve. That’s third-most in league history and not far off the 114 rallies in 2014-15 and 113 in ’13-14, according to research by the NHL stats and information department.Going into the new year, the only teams without a third-period comeback for a win in regulation were Carolina (0-13-2 when trailing after two) and Los Angeles (0-17-1). And the only team not to lose with a final-period lead remains Toronto, which is 19-0-0.Translation: Don’t leave early, because anything can and often does happen in the final period.“Fans are getting what they want Youth Jordan Weal Jersey ,” joked Montreal forward Tomas Tatar said. “It’s got to be pretty intense for them.”These days and in this speedy version of the game, no lead seems out of reach. Take Tampa Bay on Saturday: Down a goal in the third against Montreal, Adam Erne tied it up and then scored the game-winner with 1:02 remaining.“There’s no more of sitting back and closing and trying to suffocate the other team,” Montreal coach Claude Julien said when his team was in Denver on Dec. 19. “It’s a skating game now. With the skating game that’s being allowed right now, there’s more offense being showcased.”Try sitting on the puck to protect a lead with the likes of Connor McDavid, Sidney Crosby, Nikita Kucherov or Nathan MacKinnon attempting to swipe it away.Good luck with that.“The league is just getting faster and faster, young guys are coming through the league and they’re really, really good skaters,” Tatar said. “It’s just a fast game. It’s faster than ever.”Not only that, but these youngsters don’t view things as erasing a deficit so much as an opportunity to crank up the intensity.“Everybody is good throughout the lineup,” Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog said. “That makes it that much harder to put teams away. It goes to show how many good players there are in the league and how many game-changers there are, that can turn things around.”And no slashing. Or holding. Or hooking. Defensemen need to be on their best behavior.“Defensively speaking, when you can’t clutch and you can’t grab — it’s been that way for 10 years now — that really opens up the ice and allows guys to score,” Avalanche defenseman Ian Cole said. “The guys are as skilled as they’ve ever been. Every year, they’re more skilled and scoring more and more ridiculous highlight-reel goals. Guys are shooting from the goal-line and it’s going off the side of the goalie’s mask and in. Guys are doing stuff now that they haven’t done before — or doing it more often.“The skill level is as high as it’s ever been in the league.”Hence http://www.officialflyersproshop.com/authentic-adidas-nolan-patrick-jersey , the volume of comebacks. This also helps when down: A positive attitude.“You always have to believe. You can’t give up,” Tatar said. “And you don’t have to. There’s a big chance you score one or two goals and you’re back in the game.”That was the case on Dec. 15 for Dallas, which fell behind the Avs 3-0 after one period and 4-2 after two. The Stars tied it up late in the final period before Colorado scored twice to earn the win.Nothing is easy.“I don’t feel comfortable with any lead until the buzzer sounds,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “It’s a tribute to the talent around the league. When teams start feeling it, they start coming at you in waves, and it’s tough to defend.”That’s why the best defense is sometimes to remain on the offensive. Don’t sit back — keep striking.“We’re trying to stay aggressive,” Landeskog said. “The O-zone is the best place to play defense. At least, that’s the way we think about it. That’s easier said than done. The team that’s behind is always going to push.”THREE AMIGOSMikko Rantanen (17 goals, 45 assists) and MacKinnon (24 goals, 35 assists) get the lion’s share of the credit on the high-scoring top line for Colorado.Chalk up another assist for Rantanen, though, because he wanted to make sure Landeskog received full credit, too. Landeskog’s tied for the team lead with 24 goals.“He flies under the radar,” Rantanen said. “The way he plays the game is the right way always. That’s real fun to watch.”WINTER CLASSICThe 2020 Winter Classic will be held at the Cotton Bowl in Texas. Dallas will host the 12th edition of the NHL’s annual outdoor game on New Year’s Day against an opponent yet to be determined. Commissioner Gary Bettman also said the Heritage Classic will return on Oct. 26 when Winnipeg plays Calgary at Mosaic Stadium in Regina, Saskatchewan. In addition, the NHL will bring an outdoor game to the Air Force Academy on Feb. 15 Scott Laughton Jersey , 2020, as part of the Stadium Series. Colorado will play a team not yet announced.LEADERS (through Monday)Points: Nikita Kucherov (Tampa Bay), 65; Goals: Alex Ovechkin (Washington), 29; Assists: Kucherov, 46; Game-winning goals: Gabriel Landeskog (Colorado), 7; Rookie goals: Elias Pettersson (Vancouver), 19; Goals-against average: Robin Lehner (New York Islanders), 2.14; Shutouts: Marc-Andre Fleury (Vegas), 5; Wins: Fleury, 22; Save percentage: Lehner, .930.GAME OF THE WEEKJohn Tavares leads Toronto against Minnesota on Thursday. Tavares is two goals shy of 300 for his career. He was the first overall pick by the New York Islanders in 2009.