WASHINGTON, DC – They were without arguably their best defenseman. They were in hostile territory. They had to be tired after playing the night before and traveling. Somehow, the Pittsburgh Penguins managed to not let any of it bother them.
After once again seeing the Washington Capitals extend a game with a late score, Evgeni Malkin’s power play goal at 3:28 of the first overtime sent the Penguins to a gutsy 4-3 victory in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinals at the Verizon Center Saturday night. The win put the Penguins up three games to two in the best-of-seven series with a chance to end the series Monday night in Pittsburgh.
Malkin, a non-factor in the series until Game 4, drew a penalty on Washington’s Milan Jurcina to set up the power play. Then with the man advantage almost over, he took a pass from Chris Kunitz and drove down the right side. He fired a backhander that hit Capitals’ defenseman Tom Poti, who was diving to block the shot, and past goaltender Simeon Varlamov to give the Penguins their second extra time victory of the series.
The biggest question as the first period unfolded was which team would have the most energy after completing Game 4 less than 24 hours before the opening face-off of Game 5. The Capitals, feeding off of the electric home crowd, jumped all over the Penguins in the first five minutes. In the initial two minutes, Sergei Fedorov, Alexander Semin, Mike Green and Alexander Ovechkin all had good looks at Pittsburgh goalie Marc-Andre Fleury who was on his game early. Another spurt by Washington sent another four shots on Fleury in a 23 second span and again Fleury was steady.
Pittsburgh’s offense then woke up, winning the next five minute stretch of play. Ruslan Fedotenko had a couple of good chances but was denied by Varlamov. A Semin tripping penalty gave the Penguins to crank it up but Washington’s penalty killers allowed just two shots on net. Varlamov saw another four shots, including back-to-back opportunities by Bill Guerin and Sidney Crosby within three seconds, but was equal to the task.
A late Pittsburgh penalty gave Washington a power play opportunity and a chance to open the scoring. The Penguins’ defenders worked hard, knocking down several shots before they got to Fleury, including Rob Scuderi selling out and throwing his body in front of a shot by Ovechkin to maintain the scoreless tie.
As the period ended, tempers flared when Pittsburgh’s Maxime Talbot laid into Ovechkin as a reminder of the Penguins’ anger at Ovechkin for the knee-to-knee hit in Game 4 that put Gonchar out. By the time the pleasantries had ended, Ovechkin and John Erskine of the Capitals and Malkin and Brooks Orpik of the Penguins had drawn roughing calls to start the second.
Pittsburgh came out for the second period just as Washington had started the game, aggressive and active. The pressure they were putting on the Capitals paid off at the 5:17 mark when Miroslav Satan, who was situated in the far corner saw Jordan Staal out in front. Satan threaded a pass to Staal who one-timed a shot under the arm of Varlamov to give the Penguins the lead.
The lead lasted all of 59 seconds as Ovechkin took matters into his own hands. Poti gave Ovechkin the puck in the neutral zone and in the blink of an eye, Ovechkin was in the Pittsburgh zone to the top of the left circle. He whistled a shot through a screen that beat Fleury for his ninth of the playoffs at 6:16 to tie the score at one.
The teams went back and forth after the Ovechkin goal with the Penguins getting the majority of the shots. Then, at the 14:19 mark, Pittsburgh was hit with a too many men on the ice penalty. That was just the opening the Capitals were looking for. Sixteen seconds into the man advantage, Fedorov played a perfect give-and-go game with Nicklas Backstrom who beat Fleury with a wrist shot over the goalie’s left shoulder to give Washington its first lead of the game.
Trailing again starting the third, the Penguins went right to work. Less than a minute into the final stanza, Fedotenko, about 40 feet out from the net, fired a dart that Varlamov never saw because of a screen to tie the score. Then, at the 6:27 mark, Varlamov made two brilliant saves on Tyler Kennedy and Staal only to have Matt Cooke backhand a rebound home to give Pittsburgh the lead once again.
Cooke’s goal took much of the home crowd at the Verizon Center out of the contest. Then with just over four minutes remaining in regulation, the Capitals began a three-man breakout with Ovechkin leading the way. Backstrom fed Ovechkin who was in the right circle for a one-time laser that blew past Fleury to knot the score and awakened the dormant audience.
Both teams had chances in the opening frenetic seconds of the overtime period. David Steckel nearly ended it but he fanned on a bouncing puck while staring at a half-open net. Seconds later, Crosby got through the Washington defense for a shot that he pushed just wide of Varlamov and the net. The Penguins parlayed the pressure into Malkin splitting the defense, forcing Jurcina to haul him down and creating the power play that eventually led to the game-winning goal.
Game notes…Pittsburgh’s win was the first for a road team in the series. It also broke the string of losses by the team that scored first…Washington is now 0-8 all-time in Game 5’s against Pittsburgh in the playoffs…Should Pittsburgh win the series, it will be the third time the Penguins have lost the first two games of a series to Washington only to come back and take the series. The other times were in 1992 and 1996…The Penguins have now won seven straight playoffs overtime games dating back to 2001…Ovechkin’s two goals give him 10 for this playoff season, putting him one ahead of Crosby…Both Crosby and Ovechkin had five shots on net in the game. Crosby did have one shot that hit the post in the second period that did not count in his shot total…Defenseman Alex Goligoski was called up from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton to replace Gonchar in the lineup….Varlamov stopped 38 shots in the loss while Fleury earned the victory by making 28 saves.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
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