Washington Capitals get shutout by Penguins, drop to second place

In a battle for first place in the eighth and final meeting between the Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins it was the Pens who came out on top and they didn’t need overtime to do it. 3-0 was the final.

Thanks to two goals from Bryan Rust, the Penguins were able to take care of business. Rust started things off at 2:56 of the first. That would be the lone goal of the first as the Caps outshot the Pens 8-7. Yuck.

Rust added his second goal of the game 26 seconds into the second period. Jeff Carter made it 3-0 at 10:43 of the second. The Caps outshot the Pens 11-8 in the second and were outshot 11-5 in the third in a period that went scoreless. The Pens outshot the Caps overall 26-24.

The Caps were without Alex Ovechkin for the fourth game in a row and John Carlson for the second time. The Caps left the ice to the sound of boos. It was just the second time the Caps have been shut out this season, the other being a 1-0 game against the New York Islanders.

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Penguins goalie Tristan Jarry made 24 saves while the Caps went with Ilya Samsonov in goal. Samsonov had a forgettable game but should get more starts down the stretch before the playoffs.

Caps center Nicklas Backstrom told the media in an article written by Samantha Pell of The Washington Post (subscription required):

"“I think, obviously, you’re going to have games like this, but even if they won, 3-0, I don’t think we played that bad. We should have probably scored on our chances in the second there. It would have been a different game. In the third, felt like we couldn’t get anything going there.”"

With the win the Penguins improve their record to 34-15-3 with 71 points. They are now atop first place in the MassMutual East Divison. The Caps drop to 32-14-5 with 69 points in second place. Both teams clinched a playoff berth on Thursday night thanks to the game going into overtime.

The Caps finish the season with a 2-2-4 record against the Penguins. There is a chance they could see each other again in the playoffs. Whether it’s the first or second round remains to be seen. If the season ended today they would have to win their respective first rounds to get to the second round.

The Caps will head to New York for a two game series at MSG against the Rangers beginning Monday night.