Washington Capitals drop Sunday matinee to Penguins
The Washington Capitals were finally back in action after a week off. Despite having a full lineup for the first time since Jan. 19 (other than Ilya Samsonov getting a game down at Hershey), the Caps fell to the Pittsburgh Penguins by a final of 6-3. Like last week’s contest against the Philadelphia Flyers, the Caps fizzled out in the third period and the Penguins put the game away.
The Caps got a power play early in the game but didn’t score. They would get another opportunity a few minutes later when Jason Zucker was called for slashing Nic Dowd.
On the attack, Evgeny Kuznetsov scored his second goal of the season. It was Kuznetsov’s first game back from quarantine since Jan. 19 when he was on the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol list. Justin Schultz and Lars Eller had the helpers.
The Penguins tied it on a goal from Bryan Rust at 10:29. It would be the first of two goals for him on the afternoon. Brandon Tanev gave the Penguins the lead 32 seconds later. 2-1 was the score after 20 with the Pens leading in shots 10-9.
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The Caps tied it at 3:26 with Jakub Vrana‘s fourth goal of the season. Vrana was positioned right in front of the net and he backhanded it in. The Caps would get penalized a few minutes later when Dowd was called for high sticking at 6:17. Rust would make them pay with his second goal of the game to give the Penguins the lead.
Jake Guentzel tacked on another goal at 10:44. The Caps would answer when Alex Ovechkin flung the puck toward the middle. Evgeni Malkin thought he had it but Nicklas Backstrom picked his pockets and scored his seventh goal of the season at 17:49. John Carlson had the secondary assist.
The score would be 4-3 entering the third period with the Caps leading in shots 14-11. The Penguins would put the game away in the third period with two empty net goals from Zach Aston-Reese and Sidney Crosby. Crosby also had a cheap trip on Dowd that knocked him out of the game until Dowd used his dad strength to come back in.
Vrana spoke after the game via Tarik El-Bashir of The Athletic (subscription required):
"“Obviously, it’s really frustrating. Like you said, it’s a short season, and every point matters. It feels like we are letting these games slip away here.”"
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The Caps and Pens will meet again on Tuesday night. With the Caps losing four straight they need a win in this one.