Washington Capitals Defeat Penguins For Seventh Straight Victory
The Washington Capitals pulled out a big victory over Pittsburgh Wednesday night.
Wednesday night brought a huge matchup between the Washington Capitals and the Pittsburgh Penguins. Both teams entered the match on win streaks and tied for second place in the Metropolitan division.
The Caps remained hot and defeated the Penguins by a score of 5-2 for their seventh straight win.
Alexander Ovechkin wasted no time brining the Verizon Center crowd to its feet. He took a pass from Nicklas Backstrom and made a beautiful move between two Pittsburgh defenders and planted his 545th goal and 1,000th career point past Marc-Andre Fleury.
Ovechkin struck in the second period on the power play to ignite the crowd once again.
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If not for Ovechkin’s landmark goal and multi-point performance, goalie Braden Holtby would have been the top story of the game. The star netminder continued his fantastic play and was a stone wall in front of the Penguins.
Holtby faced 32 shots and made 30 saves.
Pittsburgh did get two power-play goals in the third period, but it wasn’t enough. Holtby was strong throughout and continued his solid play.
Washington got another strong game from its top two centermen.
Nicklas Backstrom had a four-point game with a goal and three assists. He now has four straight games with at least one assist. Evgeny Kuznetsov, who started the year slow, added another pretty assist from behind the net. It was his ninth point in the last five games.
If there was a negative in the game, it’s the fact that the Capitals once again took a lot of penalties and gave the Penguins five power plays. That’s something that has been a trend recently. Fortunately, Washington has been one of the best teams in the league on the penalty kill, even with the two goals allowed in this one.
With the win, Washington has a seven-game win streak and has climbed to within one point of the first place Columbus Blue Jackets in the Metropolitan division.