PITTSBURGH – The Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals met for game 4 on Wednesday May 3rd at PPG Paints Arena in front of another sold out crowd. The story leading into the match-up is the absence of Captain Sidney Crosby and skilled winger Conor Sheary, due to concussions sustained in Game 3. Coach Mike Sullivan called up reinforcements from Wilkes-Barre Scranton and swapped in Carter Rowney and Scott 
Wilson. The Caps hoped to capitalize on the momentum from the game 3’s overtime win and even the series at two games a peace.
The first period began with the Capitals pressuring the Penguins and repeatedly gaining the zone. The Pens got on the back-check leading to a quick-up feed from Olli Maatta to Patrick Hornqvist, who buried one past Braden Holtby only five minutes into the period. The goal was assisted by Maatta and Matt Cullen. The Penguins would get two power plays at 12 and 7 minutes but failed to capitalize on either of them. Marc-Andre Fleury stopped a number of scoring chances by the Caps keeping them off the board. The first ended with the Pens killing off a penalty that would carry over into the second period.
The second began with the Capitals on the power play but the Pens killed it off. Soon after the Penguins made the most of a turnover when Jake Guentzel scored his 8th goal of the playoffs on a redirected puck off Dmitry Orlov’s skate. The Caps, down 2-0, ramped up the pressure in the Penguins zone leading to an Evgeny Kuznetsov goal, assisted by Justin Williams and Marcus Johansson. Less than a minute later, with Caps still pressuring, Nate Schmidt scored off a turnover, helped by T.J. Oshie and Kevin Shattenkirk.
With the game tied at two, the Pens would go on their third power play halfway through the second, this time they made the most of it. Justin Schultz scored, beating a partially screened Holtby, stick side high. Evgeni Malkin and J. Guensel both got helpers on the goal. With Pittsburgh now up by one the Capitals found another gear and had several scoring chances on turnovers but Fleury was able to hold them off. The third period came to an end, like the first, with the Penguins on the penalty kill from a Matt Cullen high stick that drew blood (4 minutes) on Justin Williams.
The third period started off with two minutes left on the power play for the Capitols but was soon negated by Alex Ovechkin slashing Bryan Rust. The next minute or so would be 4 on 4 followed by a brief Pens power play. When five on five play resumed, the score remained 3-2 Penguins. Halfway through the period, frustration seemed to boil over, leading to another 4 on 4 when Tom Wilson and Oli Maata got into a brief scrum.
Fleury’s Sprawling Save (Video)
The last half of the third period the Capitals seemed to be in the Penguins zone for most of it. The Pens were blocking a ton of shots and Fleury made a number of key saves. The Pens seemed to be trying to simply hold on and run the clock out. With just over two minutes remaining the Caps pulled their goalie, and went on the attack. They seemed poised to score but then with 1:52 remaining, Oshie was called for a high stick on Nick Bonino putting the Penguins on a power play through the rest of regulation. Barry Trotz called a timeout with .51 seconds left and pulled Holtby. The Caps threw everything at Fleury and in the end the Penguins would hold on to win game four 3-2.
Fleury’s 3 Strong Saves (Video)
Holtby’s Save on Kessel (Video)
The Penguins now lead the series 3 – 1 and will travel to Washington for Game 5. The Penguins seemed to be on their heals the entire game but also cashed in on the few chances, and lucky bounces, that came their way. In a game that would be both a battle of attrition as well as a battle of the net-minders, Fleury was just a little better than Holtby. The Capitals out shot the Pens 38 to 19 but the Penguins, despite numerous injured players, figured out how to win.
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