Penguins 2 - 5 Capitals

The Penguins brief 2 game winning streak came to an abrupt halt early Sunday afternoon as Alexander Ovechkin and the Capitals swarmed the Penguins into submission. Easily outplayed in the 2nd and 3rd, the Pens were lucky to keep this 5-2.

It was 2-1 after one period (again missed the 1st period, dang early games). Semin and Ovechkin each had a PowerPlay goal, and Max Talbot scored on a rebound.

The second started off with a turnover by Ryan Whitney and Jordan Staal that ended up in the back of their net after a Sergei Federov slapshot. The next few minutes were fine for the Penguins as they skated into the zone and created chances, eventually leading to a PowerPlay goal by Sergei Gonchar. Momentum never swung to the Penguins side however and the Capitals continued to surge. The dam finally broke with 8 minutes left in the second as Shoane Morrison scored a soft goal that Fleury thought was going wide. However, it caught the inside of the post and behind the surprised goalie. Mere seconds later Brooks Laich got a fortuitous bounce to the corner and just threw it to the net. Fleury scrambled to cover the side but the puck managed to squeeze through and go over the line by an inch before Gill swept it away. This led to Fleury being pulled in favor of Garon. Garon came in and played well stopping all shots he faced, including a few Ovechkin dandies.

The 3rd period saw intensified hitting, but just more standing around by the Penguins in their own zone. They played a collapsing defense, but the point of this is to collapse, then expand and put pressure on the puck carriers. This was poorly executed as they would just collapse and stand still hoping to clear the puck out of the zone. It was clear that exhaustion and fatigue played a huge role in the disappointing loss. 5-2 was the end result.

My 3 Stars:

1 - Jose Theodore - 31 saves, 2 GA
2 - Sergei Federov - 1g-1a, GWG
3 - Alexander Ovechkin - 1g-1a, 9 shots


NHL.com Recap
NHL.com Boxscore