After last night’s game, the Washington Capitals will need to win three straight games to keep their season alive.
With an overtime win for the Pittsburgh Penguins, Patric Hornqvist’s goal pushed the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Washington Capitals to the brink of terminating their season in the 2016 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Hornqvist’s goal gave the Penguins a 3-2 victory in last night’s game. It’s the Pens third straight one-goal win in the series, and a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven set.
“It was obviously great,” says Hornqvist. “It was great to see that puck went in and we win the game and we’re up 3-1 here. Good feeling.”
Hornqvist leads the Penguins with five goals in nine Stanley Cup Playoff games. Coach Mike Sullivan said he appreciates Hornqvist’s willingness to do “the thankless jobs,” such as going to the net.
“It’s hard not to love this guy,” Sullivan said. “He just loves hockey. He loves being around it. He loves to compete. He’s full of energy. He wears his emotions right on his sleeve, sometimes to a fault, but we love him.”
After winning three straight games at the outset of this year’s postseason, the Caps have now lost three straight and five of their last seven.
However, the Caps didn’t lose five out of seven games until they went 2-2-3 over the final seven games of the campaign during their 120-point regular season.
Losses like these are always tough, said Caps coach Barry Trotz.
“That’s why it’s called sudden death. That’s what it feels like,” said Trotz.
Three minutes into the game, Jay Beagle got the Caps off to a good start when he beat Pens goalie Matt Murray with a backhand shot from a tight angle.
Tom Wilson made a dump-in play into the left wing corner of the Pens zone, and Beagle went after the puck. He got to it before Pens’ defenseman Ben Lovejoy and lofted a backhander high over Murray’s right shoulder and his back, tucking it perfectly into the far corner at 2:58 of the first.
The Pens pulled even just ahead of the midpoint of the period. They moved the puck from behind its own net and scored on the Caps. Hornqvist gained the zone and left a drop pass for defenseman Trevor Daley. Daley’s shot through traffic was partially blocked by Caps defenseman Karl Alzner. To the Caps dismay, it trickled through goaltender Braden Holtby’s legs and into the net to make it a 1-1 game at 9:16 of the first frame.
With multiple penalties, including two minors to each team, the last few minutes of the frame were whistled over a span of 4:06 of playing time leading up to the first intermission. Neither team succeeded with the extra man on the ice, but the Pens’ power play was able to generate more and better chances than the Caps.
Pittsburgh grabbed the lead early in the second, with Pens’ center Matt Cullen beat Nicklas Backstrom on a neutral zone draw and Pittsburgh quickly pushed the puck up the left side of the ice. Pens winger Tom Kuhnhackl took a hit to make a play in the neutral zone, sending the puck in for Cullen, who beat Backstrom and Holtby through the five-hole to make it a 2-1 game at 3:07 of the second frame.
Despite replays showing that Cullen may have been offside on the play, the Caps didn’t see it that way and chose to not to challenge the call.
“Our staff that was looking at that told us that it was a good goal,” says Trotz. “So there was no sense in wasting our timeout in challenging something that was a good goal.”
The Caps tied it up late in the second period on a strong offensive-zone shift from Kuznetsov’s line. Williams won a battle for the puck in the left wing corner, then fed to Carlson. Carlson placed a wrist shot from the bottom of the circle and past Murray’s glove hand to make it a 2-2 game at 16:19 of the middle frame.
Penguins rookie goalie Matt Murray made 34 saves for his sixth win in seven playoff starts, according to this Pens game recap.
“I definitely think I feel a little more and more comfortable and a little better and better the more that I play,” Murray said. “I made a couple mistakes here and there. I got lucky a couple of times, but I’m pretty happy with my game today and I thought I competed really hard.”
Neither team was able to break the tie in the third, with Murray taking out T.J. Oshie’s rush chance, gloving the shot from in tight after Backstrom set up the Washington winger with a nice feed.
A few minutes later, the Caps gained control of a loose puck in the Pens end after losing a draw. With a Pens defender losing or breaking his stick, Washington was able to movi the puck around the perimeter in an attempt to exploit the situation. But Cullen managed to come up with the puck, and he tore down the right side on a two-on-one, firing from the left circle. The shot beat Holtby, but rang off the middle of the crossbar and skittered away.
Pittsburgh had a power play opportunity late in regulation when Alzner was deemed guilty of hi-sticking Pens captain Sidney Crosby. The Pens couldn’t convert, and iced the puck.
Fortunately for them and unfortunately for the Capitals, the Pens wouldn’t have any need for that timeout. Oshie had a chance off the rush on the first shift of overtime, but Murray was able to glove his backhander from the slot.
A couple minutes later, it was over.
Jason Chimera made a diving play to knock the puck off of Daley’s stick just as the latter was about to tee up a prime chance from the slot. But Brian Dumoulin was able to keep it in at the Caps line, and he shoveled it to Conor Sheary along the left wall. Sheary put the puck down toward the Washington net. Caps defenseman Mike Weber knocked it down with his backhand, trying to make a play out of it. Instead he knocked it to Hornqvist, who promptly buried it for the game-winner.
“I think we got a good forecheck,” said Hornqvist. “And then Sid [Crosby] got it there on the wall and got it up to the defense. I tried to spin off my check and get off the rebound there, and I just got off to the side of the net, tried to shoot it as hard as I can. It went five-hole on the goalie.”
The Caps goalie had to watch the play again just to see what was happening.
“It was just a dribbling puck. I went to play Crosby, and it kind of popped to the next guy and I overplayed him. I thought I had to get there quicker than I did,” said Holtby.
Pittsburgh played without defenseman Kris Letang, who served a one-game suspension for interference against Capitals forward Marcus Johansson in Game 3. The Penguins went 2-8-1 without Letang during the regular season.
Washington was without defenseman Brooks Orpik, who served the second of a three-game suspension for interference against Penguins defenseman Olli Maatta in Game 2. Maatta was injured on that play and also did not play Wednesday.
The Penguins took a 3-1 lead in the best-of-7 series and can advance with a victory in Game 5 at Verizon Center in Washington starting at 7:15 p.m. on Saturday. The Caps must win that game to force a Game 6, which would be played back in Pittsburgh on Tuesday.
“We’ll have to deal with it,” says Trotz. “This group has dealt with a lot of things, I think they’ve handled adversity pretty well all year. We’ve dug ourselves a hole, and we’ll have to see if we can dig ourselves out of it a little bit.”
Jacqui Atkielski can be contacted via email at j.atkielski@thebaynet.com