Washington Capitals drop another overtime contest to Penguins
Overtime and the Pittsburgh Penguins don’t go well together for the Washington Capitals. After a big win on Sunday, the Caps were set to host the Penguins on reverse retro night. The Caps lost the game but if there was a jersey contest they would’ve won.
The Caps had another sluggish start in the first period despite a spirited morning skate where head coach Peter Laviolette had some choice words about the poor starts. Each team traded goaltender interference penalties, the culprit of the Caps being Alex Ovechkin at 5:24.
On the power play the Penguins scored at 6:41 with a strike from Evgeni Malkin. 1-0 would be the score after one with the Penguins leading in shots 12-6.
Capitals head coach Peter Laviolette talked about the early power play opportunities. Via Tarik El-Bashir of The Athletic:
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“Sometimes your specialty teams are reflected in the game itself. For me, the game from a 5on5 standpoint wasn’t good; the power play reflected that. We just needed to be better. We weren’t. There’s no excuses for that.”
The Caps would finally get on the board early in the second period. John Carlson got the puck to Zdeno Chara and he flung the puck up ice for Richard Panik. Panik took it down, put a nice move together, and scored to tie the game. It was Panik’s second goal of the season and the goal came at 4:38.
At 13:18, Evgeny Kuznetsov glided down the ice and fed Conor Sheary. Sheary sniped it home for another goal against his former team for his fifth of the season from the right face off circle.
Sadly we couldn’t celebrate that goal long enough or the lead. Jake Guentzel answered 22 seconds later. The score was tied at two after two with the Penguins outshooting the Caps 18-9. Nobody would score in the third while the Caps outshot the Penguins 7-6.
At 1:43 in overtime the game would end on a goal from Kasperi Kapanen to give the Penguins the 3-2 win. That was the only shot of the 3-on-3 skills challenge. The Caps were outshot overall 37-22.
Another stat that is troubling is that the Caps have surrendered the first goal in three straight games. Panik was asked about it after the game:
“Just a slow start. Like not mentally in a game right away. It starts with everybody, just have to be ready when the puck drops.”
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The puck drops for the Caps tomorrow night at 7 in a rematch with the Penguins to close out the homestand.