In Washington on Thursday night it was the T.J. Oshie show as he scored a hat trick including the game-winner in overtime on a wraparound.
“I haven’t won too many championships in my lifetime,” Oshie said. “Maybe through the youth years. That’s kind of the stuff you dream about when you’re a kid playing in the backyard by yourself is scoring the OT winner and getting a hat trick. It was awesome.”
The winner came midway through the first extra session after Pittsburgh game away the puck at the Washington Blue line.
T.J. Oshie had trick for Washington Thursday in Game 1 – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
Oshie took the puck and raced down the right wing and around the net to score to make it 4-3 for Washington and take Game.
“It was kind of a foot race,” Oshie said. “I figured I wasn’t going to be able to get all the way to the net and deke or at least sell a fake. I thought I saw something up top glove there. I didn’t think it got really too high. I think it maybe caught him off-guard.”
Andre Burakovsky also scored for Washington.
“I thought we did a pretty good job, generated some pretty good chances,” captain Sidney Crosby said. “Had a bit of a slow start, but once we settled in, I thought we had some good looks and it was a fast-paced game back and forth, and typical of a game this time of year.”
Ben Lovejoy and Evgeni Malkin scored for Pittsburgh and Nick Bonino tied the game at 3-3 midway through the third frame.
“This game could have went either way,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “It was an even game. Our guys played hard. I thought we carried stretches of momentum for long periods of time. It didn’t go our way. We’ll learn from it, put it behind us and try to get Game 2.”
Braden Holtby made 42 saves for the win in a game that was tight throughout.
“He (Oshie) seems to be up every single game. I’ve never seen him take a night off,” Holtby said of Oshie. “His work ethic is through the roof and compete level is amazing. That shows in these games that he’s going to be one of those guys that’s really key for us.”
Matt Murray made 31 saves in the loss.
Washington hosts Game 2 on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; NBC, CBC, TVA Sports)
You must be logged in to post a comment.