Washington Capitals drop an overtime contest to Penguins
The Washington Capitals played an entertaining game with the Pittsburgh Penguins and at least secured a point, punching their ticket to the Stanley Cup playoffs for the seventh consecutive year. That was the good news. The bad is the Caps dropped another overtime game to the Pens.
The Pens got whistled for a delay of game in the early going, putting the Caps on the power play. On the attack, Nicklas Backstrom fed Justin Schultz, who was in his first game back since recovering from a lower body injury. Schultz shot it and T.J. Oshie was there to deflect it in at 7:27 for his 18th goal of the season.
The Penguins would tie it at 15:27 on a goal from Kasperi Kapanen. 1-1 was the score after 20 with the Penguins leading in shots 14-10.
Frederick Gaudreau gave the Penguins the lead at 8:32. The Caps would respond 30 seconds later. After Backstrom won the face off, Dmitry Orlov banked it off the post and into the net for his eighth goal of the season.
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How bout Daniel Sprong? The dude wasn’t that good with the Penguins as their number one prospect but has been a steal for the Caps. That has to piss off Pens fans. He lit it up again last night.
Orlov fed Schultz and another shot from him was deflected in by Sprong at 15:07 for his 11th goal of the season and fourth goal in his last three games.
Zach Aston-Reese tied it at 18:11. 3-3 was the score after two. The Caps led in shots in the middle stanza 17-11.
The Penguins took the lead on Kapanen’s second goal of the game at 10:55. Trailing in the third period, the Caps needed the energy of the crowd to Unleash the Fury. They got exactly that.
In the McNugget minute. With 14.3 seconds left in the game, Backstrom found Evgeny Kuznetsov. Kuznetsov’s shot went off the post but was able to retrieve the puck by beating out two Penguins. He found Tom Wilson right in front of the net for his 12th of the season.
4-4 was the score as the game headed into overtime. The Penguins led in shots 9-8. The Caps outshot the Pens 2-1 in the overtime and overall 37-35 but it would be the Penguins who would come out on top in overtime on a goal from Jake Guentzel at 2:11.
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The Caps and Pens both earned a point which punched their ticket to the playoffs. The Caps will look to bounce back in a rematch on Saturday night.