Pittsburgh Penguins forwards Sidney Crosby and Chris Kunitz have become something of a package deal, their productive history as linemates serving as the primary reason. Once again, the two provided the Penguins with an offensive spark. Kunitz scored twice and Crosby had three points, his NHL-leading 92nd three-point game since 2005-06, to lead the Penguins to a 3-2 win against the Washington Capitals at Verizon Center on Monday.
"It was a very good game in all aspects,"
Penguins coach Dan Bylsma said of the play of the new-look first line
of Kunitz, Crosby and Lee
Stempniak, who was acquired Wednesday from the Calgary Flames. "I
thought 5-on-5 play we saw the speed they generated and got the
scoring chances, used them in the [defensive] zone and did a great
job there. They were exceptional."
With the win, the Penguins reclaimed the top spot
in the Eastern Conference, overtaking the idle Boston Bruins, who
surpassed them Sunday. Washington, which fell to 0-6-0 against
Pittsburgh under coach Adam Oates, remains just outside of the
Stanley Cup Playoff picture in the Eastern Conference. The Capitals
trail the Columbus Blue Jackets by one point.
"Every time when we don't win the game,
[it puts us] back in the standings," forward Alex
Ovechkin said. "We now in desperate position and we going
to fight through it."
In his highly anticipated NHL debut, Capitals
forward Evgeny
Kuznetsov recorded two shots in 10:22 of ice time, seeing spot
duty on the first line alongside Ovechkin and Nicklas
Backstrom and on the second power-play unit.
"I thought he did great," Oates
said of Kuznetsov. "As we talked about [recently], I think we
have to be patient and be realistic about expectations because it's a
foreign league for him. It's a foreign system. He's never played this
way. He's never played in front of this many people, really. So for
me, I want to ease him in, use him as much as possible, but also be
fair to him and give him a chance to grow with the team and within."
The hype surrounding Kuznetsov's debut combined
with the contentious nature of games between the two Metropolitan
Division rivals made for an exciting start as three of the first five
shots found their way into the back of the net. Pittsburgh struck
first 46 seconds in when Kunitz converted a cross-ice feed from
Crosby, who caught his wing in stride from the red line. Kunitz blew
by a flat-footed Mike
Green at the Capitals blue line, and with room to maneuver
flipped a backhand shot past Washington goalie Jaroslav
Halak for his 30th goal of the season. The Capitals responded at
3:03. Eric
Fehr sent the puck up ice to Joel
Ward, who fended off Matt
Niskanen along the left-wing boards, freeing up the puck for
Jason Chimera.
As Fehr charged toward the net, he corralled Chimera's centering pass
with his skate and chipped the puck past Penguins goaltender Jeff
Zatkoff (31 saves). Pittsburgh wasted little time restoring its
one-goal lead, scoring 49 seconds later on the power play. With
Backstrom in the penalty box for slashing Crosby, the Penguins
captain scored his 30th goal of the season on a one-timer 11 seconds
into the man advantage.
"I don't take too many of those,"
Crosby said of his long-range blast. "It's nice to see one go
in, Usually I'm a little closer when they go in, so it's nice to get
one."
For the Capitals, the second period began with one
of their most dominant puck-possession performances of the season.
Washington kept Pittsburgh pinned in its own zone and registered 15
of the period's first 16 shots. On their second power-play
opportunity of the period, Backstrom tied the game at 2-2 when his
wrist shot deflected off Penguins defenseman Rob
Scuderi and past Zatkoff at 8:57. Despite the lopsided shot
total, the Penguins still entered the second intermission with a
one-goal lead, scoring less than four minutes after Backstrom did to
take a 3-2 lead. Halak made the initial save on Stempniak's wrist
shot, but could not control the rebound, allowing Kunitz to push it
past him for his second goal of the game.
"I
thought we played very well offensively," Fehr said. "We
got everybody involved, we were cycling the puck, not just cycling it
but taking it to the net and making plays and we haven't done that in
a lot of games in the last month, so that was promising. But at the
end of the day, you don't get two points and that's what it comes
down to."
The Penguins held off the Capitals in the third
period, most impressively killing off a late power-play opportunity
after being caught with too many men on the ice. With Halak pulled in
favor of an extra attacker with 1:21 remaining, the Capitals had a
lengthy 6-on-4 advantage, but the Penguins' top-ranked
penalty-killing unit thwarted the League's second-ranked power play
to seal the victory.
"I think we did a good job taking away the
passing lanes through the middle," Scuderi said in regards
to stopping the Capitals' power play. "Certainly, they've got
Ovechkin and [defenseman John] Carlson with big one-timers and they
try to set up with Backstrom on one side and look for those two on
the other. I thought we did a good job just sitting back and not
giving them passing lanes and making them shoot themselves. It's way
easier for the defense and goalie if you can just keep the puck on
one half of the ice and not have to be going side to side. I guess I
thought everyone did a good job with that."
The teams will meet again Tuesday at Consol Energy
Center.
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