Pens/Caps Recap: Pittsburgh boosts hopes with stellar 4-1 win in DC
The Penguins score early and build a big lead on the way to a big 4-1 road win over the Washington Capitals Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals won 4-1 in a crucial late-season game in DC, boosting their chances of reaching the Stanley Cup Final. The Penguins scored early goals from the bottom of the lineup, with one from Ryan Shea and another from Lars Eller. The game was marked by a shift from Darcy Kuemper to Charlie Lindgren, who was chosen as the starting goalie for the game. The win lifts Pittsburgh's hopes for the upcoming season. Despite a strong period of play from Washington, the game was marred by several missed opportunities and missed opportunities. The loss was not without success, with goals from both teams scoring in the first and second periods of play.
Published : 4 weeks ago by Hooks Orpik in
The Penguins flip bottom of the lineup right wings from what they’ve been lately, but otherwise are rolling with what’s been working as of late for their lineup.
The host Capitals are bringing the following group into the crucial late-season game, with a slight surprise. Darcy Kuemper was slated to start, but Washington goes the other way and calls on their better goalie this season in Charlie Lindgren instead.
Early on, Lars Eller wins an offensive zone draw. Ryan Shea shoots from the point but there’s enough traffic in front that Lindgren can’t track it. The puck has eyes and finds a way to the back of the net just 1:49 in to give Pittsburgh an early edge on Shea’s first career NHL goal.
The Caps get most of the next run of play, pinning Pittsburgh in an causing several icings and getting zone time. Alex Nedeljkovic is up to the challenge.
High puck movement and another point shots sees Pittsburgh double their lead. Drew O’Connor goes low-to-high and P.O. Joseph and Kris Letang play catch to find the right lane to shoot on. Joseph finds it and sends the puck in, it deflects off a Capital’s skate and in. 2-0.
Washington gets the game’s first power play but Pittsburgh does a good job to keep them from setting up in the zone for very long.
Shots are 9-6 Caps, and in a game stocked with a couple future Hall of Famers the two goals come from defenders who only had one combined goal on the season coming into tonight. Makes sense.
Erik Karlsson goes to the penalty box to give Washington their second power play of the evening, and again the Pens’ PK makes quick work of it.
The Pens get a third goal, Valtteri Puustinen sends up a long lead pass that Michael Bunting does well to even corral by one-touching it to himself. His long-range slapshot fooled Lindgren, maybe even getting the slightest deflection off a Capital player’s extended stick on the poke-check attempt. 3-0 either way with 10:52 left in the middle frame.
Dumbo Tom Wilson slashes Karlsson and takes a penalty. An indignant Wilson accuses Karlsson of selling the call, Karlsson takes off his glove and holds up a discolored looking thumb as evidence of the infraction. No dice on the power play.
There’s a bullet below in the thoughts section about how impressive the Pens looked, so we’ll save the commentary for down there, but a wonderful period of play. Shots were 10-5 Pittsburgh in the second. They build on their lead and it looks like all systems go heading into the final 20 minutes.
Karlsson and Wilson have another run in, ironically Wilson draws a penalty by pinning Karlsson’s stick to his body and taking a spill but Karlsson got his stick there in the first place to put himself in a bad spot.
Kris Letang trips Alex Ovechkin shortly into the power play and the Caps get 1:53 worth of a 5v3 advantage. It’s a heroic stand for a while, Nedeljkovic stands on his head, Bryan Rust kills off a lot of time and nearly scores himself but in the closing seconds the Caps salvage it and finally get on the board. Sonny Milano feeds Ovechkin for a tap in at the back door, 3-1 game with 13:58 to play.
The Pens get their second power play of the game but do little with it besides see two more precious minutes tick off the clock. They wisely opt to use Marcus Pettersson on the second group, taking no unnecessary chances while up two goals.
Washington pulls the goalie with over 3 minutes to play. Nedeljkovic makes one more save and then Lars Eller races down a puck to push into the empty net. 4-1 and that’s the ball game.
• Jeff Carter showed why he was in the lineup with his specialty skill of winning faceoffs paying off. Carter won six of seven in the first period alone, several times subbing in on what wasn’t even his line to win a draw and then get off the ice. Nice situational usage there, winning 10/14 draws overall.
• The first period was very “2017 Stanley Cup Final”-esque. The Pens only had two shots on goal in the first 11 minutes of the game, they both went in. The opposition had a lot of shots and shot attempts, none went in for them. Not the best strategy to employ when it can be avoided, but if it works it works at this point.
• But that part of the game didn’t last, Pittsburgh was very strong in the second period. Positionally sound, forwards were back pressuring and stealing pucks showing effective and active layers of defending, counter-attacks were effective, one line kept building upon the next. Impressive work
• A big underlying reason and factor for the late season surge has been the play of P.O. Joseph. He’s got both of his goals on the season in this recent stretch, but all season long Pittsburgh has been looking for someone other than Marcus Pettersson to step up and provide steady play on the left side of the defense. Quietly Joseph is stepping into that role and growing by leaps and bounds in recent weeks.
• An obvious, but still correct observation would be Nedeljkovic’s impact as well. He was at his best in the first, stopping a Connor McMichael shot from going in and making a really fantastic save when Sonny Milano tipped a puck from point blank. Nedeljkovic has played three games in four days but seemingly is only growing stronger as the action has gone along. Don’t worry about the mule, just load the wagon as the old saying goes.
• Always a positive for this club when it’s a quiet night offensively for Crosby, Rust and Malkin (who’ve been the main drivers in the recent winning streak) and the team still cruises to a win. Tremendous balance on display and the supporting cast stepped up and pitched in on the scoreboard. Pittsburgh’s chances to win when names like Bunting (1G), Reilly Smith (2A), Lars Eller (1G+1A) are visible go up quite a bit.
• And would you look at that, Eller got his two points tonight on 4/4/24 to get up to 400 on his career. It was an omen, you guys.
The Pens have run the gauntlet of their road trip, winning games in Manhattan, New Jersey and Washington in the last 72 hours to keep their season very much alive. They’ve still got a ways to go to dig themselves out of the whole they dug in the first 65ish games of the season, but at the very least Pittsburgh is peaking at the right time and have their hopes (and confidence) build up a little more for the next most important game of the season on Saturday afternoon at home against Tampa.