The Confluence
Penguins 4, Capitals 3 (OT): Malkin’s goal puts Caps on the brink
by Tony on 05/09/09 at 11:04 PM ET
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The Penguins knew that in order to even have a chance to win this series, eventually they’d have to win a game at the Verizon Center.
Well, they put a check in that box tonight, as Evgeni Malkin’s backhanded centering pass on the powerplay deflected off the stick of Caps’ defenseman Tom Poti and past Simeon Varlamov at the 3:28 mark of overtime to give the Penguins a 4-3 win over the Caps and a 3-2 advantage in their best of seven series. The Penguins can now close out the Caps at home with a win on Monday night.
Alex Ovechkin scored two more goals for the Caps, including the tying goal with only 4:08 left in regulation, but it wasn’t enough.
The Penguins played without veteran defenseman Sergei Gonchar, out of course with the banged-up knee. The Penguins have still not released any information regarding Gonchar. Gonchar’s agent made a statement indicating he’d be out several weeks, but the Penguins still regarded Gonchar as a game-time decision tonight.
In Gonchar’s place, the Penguins dressed both Philippe Boucher and Alex Goligoski for a total of seven defensemen. Pascal Dupuis was the extra scratch, in addition to Eric Godard and Petr Sykora.
In reality, though, Gonchar’s absence wasn’t felt as much as it normally is. The officials only called a total of eight penalties tonight, which included four at the 20:00 mark of the first period.
For the first time in this series, the team scoring first actually won the game. After a scoreless first period, Miro Satan and Jordan Staal teamed up on a nice give-and go to give the Penguins the lead. Staal fed the puck behind the Caps’ net to Satan, then turned towards the net. Satan quickly centered the puck back to Staal, who one-timed a wrister to the far side to beat Varlamov and a 1-0 Pens lead at the 5:17 mark of the second period.
The Pens’ joy didn’t last too long, though, as Brooks Orpik gave Ovechkin a little too much room along the left boards. Ovechkin used Orpik as a screen to fire a hard wrister that Marc-Andre Fleury didn’t see until it was too late and tied the score at one apiece only 59 seconds after Staal’s goal.
Later in the period, with the Caps on a powerplay after a too-many men penalty on the Pens, Sergei Federov and Nicklas Backstrom did their own version of the give-and-go to give the Caps the lead. Backstrom passed down low to Federov, who quickly passed back to the charging Backstrom, who one-timed it past Fleury to make it 2-1 Caps.
The Penguins knotted the game up quickly after the start of the third period. Malkin brought the puck into the Caps’ zone and made a backwards dish between his legs to Ruslan Fedotenko, who one-timed a wrister to the top shelf that Varlamov couldn’t stop to make it 2-2 only 51 seconds into the third.
About six minutes into the period, Tyler Kennedy fired a wrister the Varlamov stopped, as well as the rebound chance by Staal, but Matt Cooke was there to throw a backhander into the net to give the Pens a 3-2 lead with 13:33 left in the game.
It looked good for the Penguins until there was about four minutes left in the game, when Mike Green centered the puck to Backstrom, who then fed Ovechkin at the right slot for a one-timer past Fleury to tie the game at three.
The Caps nearly won the game early in overtime, but David Steckel whiffed on an open net.
The big play for the Pens came when Milan Jurcina tripped Malkin at the 1:29 mark. At the end of the ensuing powerplay, Malkin skated around Fedorov, who was playing defenseman at the time, and threw a backhanded centering pass towards Sidney Crosby, who was driving the net. Poti dove to block the centering pass, but the puck deflected off his stick and into the net for the winning goal.
Other notes:
- Crosby was scoreless and a -2.
- Fedotenko continues his excellent play, not only with the goal but with 10 shots as well.
- Outside of Ovechkin, Backstrom is having a helluva series as well.
- Both teams were 1-for-2 on the powerplay.
- 24 blocked shots for the Pens tonight, led by Orpik with 5.
The Pens can wrap it up back at the Igloo on Monday night’s Game Six.
Filed in: | The Confluence | Permalink
Tags: NHL-Hockey, PIttsburgh+Penguins, Washington+Capitals,
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