In the overtime, Conor Sheary’s floater from the point was knocked down by Capitals defenseman Mike Weber, who was making his first appearance in the series.
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All that was left in the Washington Capitals’ dressing room shortly before midnight struck on Thursday were a half-dozen players, forlorn and frustrated.
On Wednesday night, Patric Hornqvist gave Penguins fans a reason to celebrate with an overtime decision, firing the game-winning goal two minutes, 34 seconds into the extra period to give the Penguins a 3-2 Game 4 win and a 3-1 series lead over the Washington Capitals. The Penguins lead the second-round series 2-1. “They outplayed us in a lot of aspects of the game”, Sullivan said. “We’re going to try and play as much as we can in the offensive zone tonight and try to be hard to play against that way”.
Letang will be back next game, and the Penguins should be more unsafe offensively and tighter defensively.
Washington defenseman John Carlson tied the game 2-2 with 3:41 remaining in the second period.
“It’s good to see guys sticking up for each other”, Pietrangelo said.
Weber, back in the lineup for the first time since the opening-round series against the Philadelphia Flyers, was trying to get the puck out when it flew directly to Hornqvist in the right circle for his fifth goal of the playoffs and first playoff overtime victor. Sullivan said he was a game-time decision.
Capitals defenseman Taylor Chorney added, “It squirted to somebody who was open”.
Trotz said he was disappointed by the length of Orpik’s suspension, but “not surprised based on who we’re playing and all of that”, the implication being that the Penguins receive preferential treatment from the league.
Penguins captain Sidney Crosby left briefly in the third period after getting slashed by Capitals star Alex Ovechkin.
In that context, Murray is more than just a hot goaltender and even if he gets lit up in Game 4 tonight resulting in Fleury being thrust back into service, that wouldn’t dismiss this conversation as no longer relevant. But the game is fast, and I’ve been in a situation before where I’m fully committed to hit a guy and he jumps out of the way and you still try to get a piece of him, and it doesn’t go the way you want it to. The burly forward buried it for his fifth goal of the postseason to give the Penguins a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinals. But now, the Capitals must win three straight against a surging opponent to keep their season going.
“We have the game of our lives coming up”, Capitals forward Jay Beagle said afterward. “Maybe we haven’t had the best luck in overtime lately, but we are doing everything to change that”.
How many times have we heard NHLers continuously babble on and on about how they must “respect” each other on the ice in order to avoid the type of cheap shots that could lead to serious injury?
Still, Washington needed just 2:58 to take its first lead since Game 1 as Beagle beat Pittsburgh defenseman Ben Lovejoy to the puck on a dump in and flipped a backhander Murray’s way despite being almost parallel to the goal line. Daley got loose on a Penguins breakout created when they broke Washington’s three-man forecheck. During the regular season, Oleksy had 19 points (2G-17A) and was plus-8 in 63 games with WBS. Pouliot over-skated the puck along the boards in the Penguins zone, freeing Justin Williams to scoop it up and find Carlson cross-ice.
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To say this was a must win for the Capitals is an understatement.
