Capitals Beat Golden Knights 6-2; One Win Away From Stanley Cup Championship

The Cinderella NHL inaugural season of the Vegas Golden Knights is on the brink of coming to an end. The Washington Capitals jumped off to a 3-0 first period lead in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final and beat the Golden Knights 6-2 in Washington on June 4th. The victory put the Capitals in a commanding 3-1 lead in the series.

All is not lost for Vegas of course unless and until Washington wins its fourth game. The series returns to Las Vegas for Game 5 on June 7th, and if it was to come down to a Game 7, that too would be in Vegas. However, history is not on the side of the Golden Knights. The last 31 teams that had a 3-1 lead in the Stanley Cup Final went on to win the championship. The last team to blow a 3-1 lead was the 1942 Detroit Red Wings, who lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs. (That 1942 championship was the first of six for the Leafs between 1942-1951 in what was a six team NHL. Four of those came at the expense of the Red Wings.) If the Capitals win, it will be the franchise’s first Stanley Cup championship in the team’s 43 year history.