During the Canes throttling of the Caps in Game Three, Alex Ovechkin managed one knockout of his own when he destroyed Andrei Svechnikov in a fight in the first period. Svechnikov did not return to the game.

After the loss, Ovechkin addressed the fight.

“I hope he’s okay,” Ovechkin said. “You don’t want to see a guy get hurt.”

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“I’m not a big fighter. He’s the same,” Ovi said of Svechnikov. The bout was Svechnikov’s first and Ovechkin’s fourth total. His previous fights came against Brandon Dubinsky, Paul Gaustad, and Mike Richards.

Ovechkin clarified that Svechnikov was the instigator. “He asked me to fight, I said ‘let’s go,'” Ovi said.

Braden Holtby noted that the fight should have boosted the Caps’ effort but instead, “we kind of wasted that energy he created.”

Braden Holtby on Ovi's fight: "It was big for him to show his emotion. He plays hard against a kid that takes a lot of cheap shots & that kind of thing. That was playoff hockey. But the biggest thing is that we didn't respond very well. We kind of wasted that energy he created." — Ian Oland (@ianoland) April 16, 2019

As for the game, Ovechkin just wants the Caps to forget about it.

“We get maybe a little bit frustrating, a little too confidence,” Ovechkin said of Game Three. “We just have to forget about it and move forward.”

Full RMNB Coverage of Game Three

Headline photo: NBC Sports Washington