After 19 years, the Washington Capitals will be appear in the Eastern Conference Final in 2018.
On Monday night, in Pittsburgh, the Caps dispelled their demon of a generation with a 2-1 win over the Penguins in overtime.
Evgeny Kuznetsov struck on a breakaway when he split the Pens defense off a pass 
from Alex Ovechkin.
Kusnetsov went left and snuck the puck five-hole for the winner.
“I see [Kuznetsov] was over there and I just put the puck in space and he did what he does best,” Ovechkin said. “It feels great. Never been this position before and I’m looking forward to [the conference final].”
This will be the first appearance in the conference final since Ovechkin joined the Caps.
“We believe in each other,” Ovechkin said. “It doesn’t matter what happened [in the past]. We have to stick together. We knew it was there. We just had to battle, and we just had to fight through it. Again, great feeling right now and we’re going forward.”
Braden Holtby made 21 saves to get the win and was solid especially in the third period when the Pens pressed the zone.
Alex Chiasson scored to give the Caps a 1-0 lead in the second period but Kris Letang tied it up for Pittsburgh.
“This group has been resilient. … The great thing about this is all day I knew we were going to win. I don’t know why, but this group has a lot of resiliency,” Caps head coach Barry Trotz said. “And first of all, there are some great champions in that other room. Great players. What they’ve done and accomplished the last couple years is pretty remarkable. This is a tough League.”
[WATCH: All Capitals vs. Penguins highlights | Complete Capitals vs. Penguins series coverage]
Matt Murray made 28 saves in the loss.
“They were just the better team. I thought they played a heck of a game tonight. It didn’t feel like we really had many chances at all. They’re a great team and they showed it. They deserved to win tonight,” Murray said after the series ending loss.
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