The Pittsburgh Penguins ended their seven-game losing streak (0-6-1) with a 4-1 away win at the Washington Capitals on Wednesday night at Capital One Arena. Curious: the Penguins only played with four defenders for a long period of time, and even with only three for a short period.
Video: PIT@WSH: McGinn shoots and the puck slides in
Penguins defend the lead with just four defenders
Actually, the duel between the two superstars is the big headline when the Capitals Alex Ovechkin on the penguins with Sidney Crosby meeting. In this crisis duel, however, others came into focus, with Ovechkin (0-0-0, one shot on target, seven checks, -2, 21:07 minutes ice time) a personal point streak of six games (5-2-7) came to an end , while Crosby (0-1-1, two shots on target, one hit, two blocks, +2, 20:42 ice time) added an assist.
One of the main actors was Pittsburgh’s goalie Casey DeSmith, who stopped 24 of 25 shots (96 percent catch rate) and thus recorded his first win of the season (1-3-1). “It was the most complete game of the season,” said DeSmith. “Everyone showed up, especially the penalty killers and defenders and then a couple of our big guys scored.”
Curious: Pierre-Oliver Joseph (lower body injury) and Jan Rutta (upper body injury) were eliminated in the second third. The Penguins had to play to the end with only four trained defenders.
“I think everyone understood the situation, that everyone had to come off the ice faster and do shorter changes,” Pittsburgh’s defense attorney said Marcus Pettersson. “Our forwards had to help us and I think they did a good job playing the pucks deep so we could switch.”
As a defender in the third third Jeff Petry briefly disappeared into the dressing room, in the meantime only three Penguins defenders were available. So Striker jumped Jeff Carter and helped out for a change in defence.
“I wasn’t sure if he could run backwards that well, but he’s a pretty smart player. We thought his experience in this league would help him,” said Penguins coach Mike Sullivan, whose side won 3-0 -Advance went into the third third and ended up winning 4-1.
Two tunnels put Pittsburgh on the road to victory
After a goalless opening period, the Penguins were lucky enough to take the lead in the second half: Jason Zucker brought the disc flat to the goal from an acute angle and was suddenly allowed to celebrate in an opaque scene (28th). “It was a shot that bounced between my legs and landed behind me, so I squeezed my legs together to create a whistle and unluckily kicked the puck into the goal myself,” Washington goalie said Darcy Kuemper (24 saves, 88.9 percent catch quota).
Dive outnumbered Brock McGinn free in front of Kuemper and tunnelled the goalkeeper to 2:0 (33rd). Pittsburgh now had the momentum on their side: Petry thundered a concealed slap shot into the right angle to make it 3-0 (36′). “It felt like we started in the right place, but we didn’t reward ourselves for it. After that, the pendulum swung to their side. We just weren’t good enough,” said the Capitals striker Lars Eller.
Video: PIT@WSH: Petry converts a shot from the blue line
Scored against a decimated Penguins in the final period Marcus Johansson the consolation goal for Washington when he received a pass from Sonny Milano from behind the goal in the slot (53.). It was Milano’s first scoring point in three games for the Capitals.
Washington then tried everything again, but Pittsburgh’s bulwark held out even with only three defenders in the meantime. Jake Guentzel made the decision with an empty net hit (59th).
Capital in crisis
“It was a close game,” said Capitals coach Peter Laviolette. “Whenever you play against Pittsburgh, it gets a little dirty. There’s not a lot of space, it’s not nice or shiny. We also had chances and finally scored in the third period, but in the end it was too little and too late .”
The US capitals presented themselves with little impact on the power play (0/4), even conceded a goal when outnumbered, lost five of their last six games and hope in a “home-and-home” against the Tampa Bay Lightning (Friday in Washington , Sunday in Tampa) for a trend reversal.