The Washington Capitals fell to the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-2 to close out the 2024-25 regular season. The Capitals finish with a 51-22-9 record which is good for 111 points, first place in the Metropolitan Division and top seed in the Eastern Conference. They'll face the Montreal Canadiens beginning on Monday night.
Tough loss but bigger things to play for
Connor McMichael got things started at 4:08 to put the Caps in front 1-0. Tom Wilson would set him up with his 32nd assist on the year. Other than that it was all Penguins making it a challenging night for goaltender Clay Stevenson who was making his NHL debut.
Bryan Rust would tie the game at 4:54. In the second period Rust added a power play goal at 7:19. Then Sidney Crosby struck at 11:56. Alex Ovechkin would answer at 16:56 with a PPG of his own. It was his 42nd of the season.
Dylan Strome had the primary assist for his 53rd while Pierre-Luc Dubois had the secondary for his 46th on the season. For Ovechkin it was his 897th goal of his career. He'll enter the next regular season needing one hat trick for 900 career goals after accomplishing the ultimate hockey milestone in passing Wayne Gretzky's career goals record. Ovi even got a standing ovation from the Pittsburgh fans.
In the third period the Penguins put it away. Danton Hainen struck at 8:46 then at 9:01 Philip Tomasino would make it a 5-2 game which would turn out to be the final.
The Penguins led in shots 13-5 in the first period. The Caps had the edge 12-11 in the middle stanza while they were severely outshot 14-3 in the final period. The Caps were outshot 38-20 overall. Both teams went 1 for 2 on the power play while face off percentage was even at 50 percent.
The Penguins had 24 hits compared to the Caps 16. Washington had 20 blocked shots compared to Pittsburgh's eight. The Caps had 15 giveaways while the Pens had 14 whlle the Pens had six takeaways while the Caps had two.
The Caps will have a day off Friday but fans are encouraged to check out a playoff pep rally from 5-7:30 p.m. at Union Market. The team will practice on Saturday morning with Game 1 of Round 1 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs coming at you on Monday night at 7 p.m. on Monumental Sports Network as well as ESPN.