Washington Capitals (7-5-1 15pts) v. Pittsburgh Penguins (8-4-2 18pts)

Game Recap

Heading into Pittsburgh, the Washington Capitals would be riding high off of their dominate victory over the St. Louis Blues on Wednesday night, and they would look to continue that momentum as they visit the Penguins in the 99th meeting between Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby. In the first period, Connor McMichael would get called for hooking 65 seconds into the game to give the Penguins the early powerplay, and they would make the Capitals pay as Sidney Crosby would score his tenth of the season to give the Penguins the 1-0 lead. This would give the Penguins the momentum, and midway through the period, Sonny Milano would go to the box for hooking to give the Penguins their second powerplay of the game, an59 seconds into the powerplay, Crosby would strike again to grow the Penguins lead to two. Moments later, Blake Lizotte would be called for slashing, but the Capitals would not be able to generate much with the man advantage, and then after the penalty was over, Trevor van Riemsdyk would take an interference penalty to put the Penguins back on the powerplay. Fortunately for the Capitals, they would kill this one off to remain down only by two going into the first intermission.

In the second period, the Penguins would stay on the attack as Anthony Mantha would score against his former team after poking the puck past a sliding Charlie Lindgren to grow the Penguins lead to three. 15 seconds later, van Riemsdyk would take his second penalty of the game, but the Penguins would not be able to capitalize on the powerplay opportunity. Going into the midway point of the second period, Dylan Strome would score his fourth of the season with a beautifully placed wrist shot to get the Capitals on the board and back within two. The Penguins would jump back onto the attack, but the Capitals first line would spark some energy, and when it looked like Ryan Leonard would have scored to get the Capitals back within one, the goal would be pulled back as the Penguins would win the coach’s challenge to have the goal called back due to the play being offsides. However, 38 seconds after Leonard’s potential goal is waved off, Rasmus Sandin would score to get the Capitals back within one. Then with 4.9 seconds left in the period, Tom Wilson would squeeze one past Arturs Silovs to erase the Penguins three goal lead and tie the game at 3 for the Capitals.

Going into the third period, the Capitals looked to complete the comeback, and while generating some pressure in the Penguins zone, Connor Clifton would interfere with Anthony Beauvillier to put the Capitals on the powerplay. The Capitals second powerplay opportunity would generate a chance or two, but was not the momentum builder you would hope it would be. The Capitals would go right back onto the powerplay when Ben Kindel would bat the puck over the glass for a delay of game penalty, but while on the powerplay, Dylan Strome would get tied up with Parker Wotherspoon, and take a cross checking penalty to negate the powerplay for the Capitals. On the abbreviated powerplay, Bryan Rust would finish off a nice pass by Evgeni Malkin to reclaim the lead for the Penguins. With a little over two minutes left in regulation, and with the Capitals pressing the play, Charlie Lindgren would be pulled for the extra attacker, but Connor Dewar would get the empty netter to give the Penguins the 5-3 victory over the Capitals.

 

Lineups:

Washington Capitals

Alex Ovechkin — Dylan Strome — Anthony Beauvillier

Aliaksei Protas — Connor McMichael — Tom Wilson

Sonny Milano — Hendrix Lapierre — Ryan Leonard

Brandon Duhaime — Nic Dowd — Justin Sourdif

Martin Fehervary — John Carlson

Jakob Chychrun — Matt Roy

Rasmus Sandin — Trevor van Riemsdyk

Charlie Lindgren

Logan Thompson

Scratched: Dylan McIlrath, Declan Chisholm, Spencer Smallman

Injured: Ethen Frank (upper body), Pierre-Luc Dubois (lower body)

 

Pittsburgh Penguins

Bryan Rust — Sidney Crosby — Ben Kindel

Tommy Novak — Evgeni Malkin – Anthony Mantha

Ville Koivunen — Danton Heinen — Philip Tomasino

Connor Dewar — Blake Lizotte — Joona Koppanen

Parker Wotherspoon — Erik Karlsson

Ryan Shea — Kris Letang

Ryan Graves — Connor Clifton

Arturs Silos

Sergei Murashov

Scratched: Mathew Dumba, Harrison Brunicke

Injured: Rickard Rakell (hand surgery), Rutger McGroarty (upper body), Caleb Jones (lower body), Justin Brazeau (upper body), Noel Acciari (upper body), Tristan Jarry (lower body), Filip Hallander (undisclosed), Kevin Hayes (upper body)

 

 

First Period

WAS Penalty – 1:05 – Connor McMichael – 2 minutes for Hooking

PIT PPG – 2:22 – Sidney Crosby (10) from Ben Kindel (1) and Bryan Rust (8)

WAS Penalty – 10:33 – Sonny Milano – 2 minutes for Hooking

PIT PPG – 11:32 – Sidney Crosby (11) from Bryan Rust (9) and Erik Karlsson (11)

PIT Penalty – 13:54 – Blake Lizotte – 2 minutes for Slashing

WAS Penalty – 16:07 – Trevor van Riemsdyk – 2 minutes for Interference

 

End of First	WAS – 0	PIT – 2
Shots	7	16
Faceoff Wins	12/21	9/21
Hits	7	3
Powerplay	0/1	2/3

 

Second Period

PIT Goal – 2:08 – Anthony Mantha (7) from Tomas Novak (5) and Blake Lizotte (1)

WAS Penalty – 2:23 – Trevor van Riemsdyk – 2 minutes for High Sticking

WAS Goal – 9:41 – Dylan Strome (4) from Alex Ovechkin (6)

WAS Goal – 14:55 – Rasmus Sandin (1) from Dylan Strome (9) and Alex Ovechkin (7)

WAS Goal – 19:55 – Tom Wilson (9) from Dylan Strome (10) and John Carlson (7)

 

End of Second	WAS – 3	PIT – 3
Shots	23	25
Faceoff Wins	22/44	22/44
Hits	17	8
Powerplay	0/1	2/4

 

Third Period

PIT Penalty – 4:43 –  Connor Clifton – 2 minutes for Interference

PIT Penalty – 8:39 – Ben Kindel – 2 minutes for Delay of Game

WAS Penalty – 9:24 – Dylan Strome – 2 minutes for Cross Checking

PIT PPG – 11:16 – Bryan Rust (5) from Evgeni Malkin (17) and Ben Kindel (2)

PIT ENG – 17:56 – Connor Dewar (4) from Kris Letang (6)

 

End of Third	WAS – 3	PIT – 5
Shots	31	31
Faceoff Wins	29/60	31/60
Hits	26	10
Powerplay	0/3	3/5

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