Penguins Edge Out Capitals In OT To Win Series In 6 Games
PITTSBURGH -- The Pittsburgh Penguins' season is lasting far longer than was expected only a few months ago. The Washington Capitals' season is over far sooner than was expected only a few days ago.
Nick Bonino scored 6:32 into overtime and the Penguins overcame Washington's frantic three-goal comeback to beat the regular season-champion Capitals 4-3 in a decisive Game 6 of the Eastern Conference semifinals Tuesday night.
"We definitely didn't draw it up that way," Penguins captain Sidney Crosby said. "There were some anxious moments there. I haven't seen anything like it."
The Penguins won it when Bonino pounced on a Carl Hagelin rebound and put it by goalie Braden Holtby after the Penguins' own string of terrible -- and somewhat bizarre -- penalties helped Washington overcome a 3-0 deficit and tie it. But the Penguins came back themselves to beat the Capitals for the eighth time in their nine all-time playoff matchups.
"I went to the front -- the puck always ends up there -- and I was able to get a stick on it," Bonino said of his game-winner. "It wasn't pretty, but they're usually not."
The Penguins, the NHL's hottest team with 22 wins in 27 games, now move on to the Eastern Conference finals against the Tampa Bay Lightning later this week. Tampa Bay rallied from a 3-1 deficit to beat the Penguins in a first-round series in 2011.
A remarkable series of Penguins penalties -- delay-of-game calls on Kunitz, Nick Bonino and Ian Cole in a span of 2:02 for shooting the puck over the glass -- gave the Capitals the opportunity they needed to tie it.
"But we have the ability to never get down, never fold, and never say, 'Ah, well, this was tough, we'll get them next time, we'll next game,' " Penguins defenseman Ian Cole said. "We scratched and clawed to salvage the game."
They'd already long since salvaged a season that began was a mediocre 15-10-3 start and the mid-December firing of coach Mike Johnston, who was replaced by Mike Sullivan.
The Capitals, whose 120 points during the season were 11 more than any other team accumulated, were trying to stage their own comeback from a 3-1 series deficit, only to be denied by Bonino's goal and rookie Matt Murray's outstanding goaltending. Murray made 36 saves and now is 4-0 after a loss in these playoffs.
"We made a great push from 3-0, we tied the game and the opportunity to win it. But (it's) a missed opportunity," said Capitals star Alex Ovechkin, who has never played in a conference finals. "We lost in the second round and it (is bad)."
Phil Kessel had two goals and an assist for the Penguins, who have won their last 57 games when leading after two periods.
Washington still hasn't reached the Eastern Conference finals since 1998.
"I don't think we've comprehended what happened yet," Capitals defenseman Matt Niskanen said. "I thought we showed a lot of guts coming back, but there's no silver lining."
The Penguins, 44-0 this season when leading after two periods, led 3-0 after Kessel scored early in the first and Kessel and Hagelin scored 33 seconds apart on the same Brooks Orpik-caused power play in the second.
A bad penalty by Penguins forward Chris Kunitz led to T.J. Oshie's power-play goal with 1:30 left in the second and started Washington's comeback.
Justin Williams scored his second in as many games at 7:23 of the third, skating out from behind the net to beat goaltender Matt Murray with a wrist shot.
Pittsburgh killed off a 5-on-3 Washington power play lasting 54 seconds, only to have Cole's penalty create another one.
Defenseman John Carlson -- who played nearly half the game after defenseman Karl Alzner left with an apparent foot injury -- and Ovechkin flipped sides of the ice, briefly confusing the Penguins and leaving Carlson open in the left circle for a wide-open one-timer that tied it at 13:01. Ovechkin picked up his second assist of the game.
"I think that was the worst feeling I've ever had in hockey," Bonino said of the penalties that led to the comeback
The Capitals went on another power play, resulting from defenseman Kris Letang's interference penalty with 2:46 left in regulation, but couldn't score and the teams went to overtime for the third time in six games.
"I think we could have had a little more killer instinct on that power play," Carlson said.
Despite that surge, the Penguins looked stronger and quicker in the overtime, when they had far more scoring opportunities than the Capitals did.
The Penguins got on the board only 5:41 into the first. Kessel skated down the left side and put a hard wrist shot past Alzner and goaltender Braden Holtby for his first goal of the series.
Kessel's second goal came 40 seconds after Orpik -- back after serving a three-game suspension for a late, head-high hit on defenseman Olli Maatta in Game 2 -- drew a double minor for high-sticking Patric Hornqvist in the face during the second period.
Kessel carried the puck from the edge of the left circle into the slot and, deciding not to pass to Crosby at the right post, deked Holtby with a move and slid the puck into a wide-open net at 7:05 for his fifth of the playoffs.
Alzner, normally part of the Capitals' penalty-killing unit, was off the ice after being slashed in the right foot by Crosby midway through the first period. Alzner returned to play two shifts early in the second, but his skating clearly was compromised and he didn't play again.
"If there's one guy on team we can't lose, it's him (Alzner)," Holtby said. "He's our best penalty killer, and it showed."
With the Penguins still on the power play because of Orpik's four-minute penalty, Hagelin made it 3-0 by redirecting Maatta's shot from the right point at 7:38. Pittsburgh was 1-for-16 on the power play in the series before scoring twice with the man advantage in a span of 33 seconds.
The Capitals finally went on the power play later in the period, and Oshie made it 3-1 by cutting across the slot and beating Murray with an off-balance shot from the right circle at 18:30 -- his fifth of the series and sixth in the postseason.