It was Pioneers Night at Capital One Arena as the Washington Capitals celebrated their first era of hockey in honor of the 50th anniversary season. But it was not the result the fans or alumni wanted as they fell 4-2 to the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 70th meeting all time between Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby.
Erik Karlsson put the Penguins up at 3:11 of the first period. Michael Bunting followed with a tip in at 6:59 to make it 2-0. Rasmus Sandin got the Caps on the board at 8:22 for his first goal of the season. It was assisted by Connor McMichael and Tom Wilson.
Andrew Mangiapane would tie it with a snap shot on the breakaway for his fourth goal of the season at 6:04 of the second period. Jakub Vrana and Hendrix Lapierre helped there.
At 10:28 in the third peirod Evgeni Malkin gave the Penguins the lead for good. Then Noel Acciari followed with an empty netter at 19:37 to seal it.
Shots on goal were 11-10 Pittsburgh in the first, 18-11 Washington in the second and 10-6 Pens in the third period. The Caps outshot the Penguins 34-32 overall but could not solve Joel Blomqvist as he made 32 saves. For the Caps, Charlie Lindgren finsihed with 28 saves out of 31 tries for a save percentage of .903. Expect Logan Thompson to go for the Caps on Saturday night in St. Louis against the Blues.
The Caps would have the edge in face off percentage 52.5 percent to 47.5 percent and also outhit the Penguins 20-19 as well as forcing 21 giveaways.
The Caps power play is still struggling as they went 0 for 3 in the game. On the other side the Penguins went 0 for 2 on their man advantage. Spencer Carbery spoke about the struggles of the power play to the media after the game via Tarik El-Bashir of Monuemntal Sports Network:
"We're just going to have to find a way to continue to work at it. We don't have... it's evolved without Kuzy, Backy and Osh now. And so we're going to have to figure out a mix of who these players are, the options that best suit those players and their skill sets, and we're still working our way through that. "Spencer Carbery
Carbery on the struggling PP, which came in ranked last and went 0 for 3: “We’re just going to have to find a way to continue to work at it. We don’t have…it’s evolved without Kuzy, Backy and Osh now. And so we’re going to have to figure out a mix of who those players are, the…
— Tarik El-Bashir (@Tarik_ElBashir) November 9, 2024
Next up for the Caps is a Saturday night game in St. Louis at 7 p.m. eastern time on Monuemental Sports Network.