Capitals Claim Game 1

Mikael Renberg scored a goal and assisted on another and Manny Legace made 36 saves to lead the Washington Capitals to a 3-1 victory over the Florida Panthers. The win gives Washington a 1-0 lead in the first round playoff series.

After a scoreless first period that saw Florida outshoot Washington 12-3, the Panthers got on the board quickly in the middle stanza. Bondra was the scorer from Novoseltsev and Rathje at 0:57. The Capitals came back to tie the game less than four minutes later. Zigmund Palffy scored the goal from Renberg and Radoslav Suchy. The second period was much more even as the Panthers held just a 14-12 shots advantage.

With everything on the line in the final period, both teams came out looking for the go-ahead goal. Washington found itself in the lead when Jonathan Cheechoo netted from Todd Warriner and Andrew Ference at 7:09. The Caps added an insurance marker late in the period on the power play. Renberg got the goal from David Vyborny and Frantisek Kaberle at 16:35.

Roberto Luongo stopped 19 shots in the loss for the Panthers.

Game two is tomorrow in Florida.