The Washington Capitals dropped a close, hard fought 4-3 game to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Super Bowl Sunday.
Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby both went scoreless as other players on the Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins stepped up to the plate to provide an entertaining game.
It ended Ovechkin’s five-game goal streak which was a bummer because it’s always cool when he scores on national TV.
The Capitals record with the loss drops to 35-13-5 while the Penguins improves to 33-14-5. They still lead the top of the NHL with 75 points, one point ahead of the Boston Bruins.
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Lars Eller gave the Caps a 1-0 lead at 10:38 getting a pass from Richard Panik at the right face-off area and going top shelf right corner past Matt Murray.
The Penguins stormed back with a goal from Sam Lafferty at 11:46 before Patric Hornqvist gave them the lead at 12:40. 2-1 was the score after the first period with the Penguins outshooting the Capitals 12-10.
The Penguins added another goal in the second from Dominik Simon at 11:59 to make it 3-1. That would be the score after two periods. The Penguins outshot the Capitals 16-9 in the second period.
The Caps got back in the game in the third period, or at least tried to, after Evgeny Kuznetsov scored his 18th goal of the season at the six minute mark with some slight puck work, a good drive to the net, and a nifty backhander. Jakub Vrana and Nick Jensen had the helpers.
Late in the third the Penguins got one back with a goal from Brandon Tanev at 17:27. The Caps answered 15 seconds later with Eller’s second goal of the game at 13th of the season. Carl Hagelin and Radko Gudas had the helpers.
That would be as close as the Caps would get as the Penguins held on for a 4-3 win. The Caps outshot the Penguins 13-5 in the final period but were outshot overall by a slight margin of 33-32.
Murray made 29 saves for the Penguins. The Caps went with their rookie netminder Ilya Samsonov who also made 29 saves on 33 shots for an .879 save percentage. It was his first loss in 12 starts.
Tom Wilson told reporters after the game (per NHL.com’s
Harvey Valentine):
"“A couple breaks here and there don’t go our way, and it just seemed a bit of a frustrating game. We did our best to try and turn the tide, it was just a little bit late. I think guys were kind of hoping there was another period there, but I guess we will have a couple more [games against them].”"
The Caps look to bounce back on Tuesday night when they host the Los Angles Kings.