In Pittsburgh, the visiting Washington Capitals defeated the Penguins, 3-1, on Tuesday night.
Vitek Vanecek made 26 saves to get the win.
“It’s not fun losing. It’s fun winning,” Vanecek said. “I was just focusing, focusing every time and trying to do the best for the team. They helped me a lot today and we won. That’s a good thing.”
Zach-Aston Reese was the lone goal-scorer for the Pens.
Conor Sheary, Jakub Vrana and Lars Eller were the Caps strikers
“I think the effort was really good tonight,” Washington head coach Peter Laviolette said. “It seemed like everybody was on point and dialed in, and ready to play. I said it, it’s hard when you lose a hockey game, especially when it’s your fourth one. There were a lot of things that I liked last game. We just needed to clean it up a little bit.
“I thought tonight was cleaner. They pushed a little bit in the third. Vitek made some saves for us that he needed to make. Overall, it was pretty good. Pretty strong.”
Pittsburgh dropped to 7-6-1 with the loss.
“I had mentioned last week, a lot of hesitation giving and receiving hits,” Aston-Reese said. “Having to get surgery kind of made me take a step back and think about why I have been getting injured and what I can change. I did change a few off-ice habits. Cleanup up my diet. … Bunch of little things, but they all add up, and I think it’s starting to show.”
Washington improved to 7-4-3.
“[The Penguins] are a good hockey club over there,” Capitals forward T.J. Oshie said. “We’ve had some trouble with them this year. Defensively, offensively, special teams-wise, I think that’s our most complete game of the year. Something to be happy about and build on going forward here.”
Tristan Jarry made 39 saves in the loss.
“I thought Tristan played a solid game tonight. Certainly made some big saves for us,” Pittsburgh head coach Mike Sullivan said. “We’ve just got to find a way to play the game and respond the right way.”
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