Caps Drop Pens with Six-Pack Attack, 6-1

Having just played back-to-back road games for the first time this season themselves, the Caps seemed to have a pretty good game plan for facing the Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday night at Capital One Arena. The Pens took a 6-3 drubbing from the Senators in Ottawa on Saturday night and had to clear customs before arriving in D.C. in the wee hours of Sunday morning for their second game in as many nights.

The Caps came at the Pens with a combination of physicality and puck possession in Sunday's contest, taxing Pittsburgh gradually but surely over the game's 60 minutes. By night's end, the Caps had carved out a convincing 6-1 victory over their Metropolitan Division rivals, Washington's fourth consecutive win.
"It was a good game for us," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "Pittsburgh had a tough schedule, and yet they still play hard, they're always pushing on the puck and pushing on bodies. We knew what kind of game we were in for, and I thought our guys responded really well and handled it really well."
Six different goal scorers found the back of the net for the Capitals, who bookended a quartet of 5-on-5 goals with a shorthanded strike in the first and a power-play tally near the end of the evening.

"I think that's exactly the recipe for success for us," says Caps center Lars Eller of his team's diverse attack. "If we get contributions from every line, we're going to be hard to play against and defend against and match up against. I think that was a big part of why we were successful on the road, too."
Pittsburgh had the game's first power play, but it was the Caps that took the lead during the Penguins' man advantage. Garnet Hathaway pokechecked Sidney Crosby in the middle of the Washington zone, sending Tom Wilson up the ice on a 2-on-1 with Martin Fehervary. At the Pittsburgh line, Wilson hit Fehervary with a perfect feed and the rookie defenseman did the rest, ripping a wrist shot past Tristan Jarry on the short side for a 1-0 Caps lead at 4:25 of the first frame.
Just under 10 minutes later, the Caps doubled that lead on a couple of sublime passes that culminated in Hathaway's third goal in two games. From his own end of the ice, Trevor van Riemsdyk sent Alex Ovechkin into Pittsburgh ice along the right-wing wall with a perfectly timed indirect feed. The captain pump-faked a shot before issuing a laser-sharp feed to Hathaway, who one-timed it home from the bottom of the circle on his off wing at 14:05, putting Washington up by a pair.
Caps goalie Vitek Vanecek made a strong stop on Jeff Carter about a minute later, but the Pens began buzzing around the Washington zone in the final minutes of the first, and they got one to go with 80 seconds left. Kris Letang rolled the puck netward, and it got caught in a tangle of traffic in front. Jake Guentzel found it first and potted it, enabling the Pens to halve the Caps' advantage just ahead of the first intermission.
Pittsburgh had a chance to pull even when Connor McMichael was boxed for hooking a dozen seconds into the second, but the Pens' power play slide extended to 0-for-25 when they failed to get even on the man advantage. The Caps were also unable to score on their second power play chance shortly thereafter, but Washington found some late thunder in the middle period, putting some distance between themselves and the Pens going into the third.
Conor Sheary picked off a Brian Dumoulin feed at the Pittsburgh line, and quickly sent Lars Eller back into the zone along the right-wing wall with Daniel Sprong going to the net at the far post. Eller patiently waited before firing the pass across, and Sprong got all of a rolling puck, going to the shelf to beat a sprawling Jarry at 16:11 of the second.

Just over two minutes later, Sheary struck for his second goal in as many games. After Sprong narrowly missed his second goal of the night, McMichael collected the puck behind the Pittsburgh net and fed Sheary in front. The winger victimized his former employer at 18:36 to send the Caps to the room with a 4-1 cushion after 40 minutes of play.
There was no letup in Washington's game in the third. The Caps kept the heat on the Penguins in Pittsburgh ice, and the top line struck early to make it 5-1 before the final frame was five minutes old.
Ovechkin and Wilson double-teamed Dumoulin on the forecheck, with each winger hitting him and Ovechkin shaking the puck loose. The captain put it to the front for Evgeny Kuznetsov, who scored from the slot at 4:43.

Playing just his second game of the season and first since Oct. 30, Crosby grew visibly frustrated as the night wore on, and he was sent off for cross-checking Kuznetsov at 9:15 of the third. Twenty seconds later, Kuznetsov sent Wilson into Pittsburgh ice with a burst, enabling him to get behind the weary defenders and tuck a backhander through Jarry's five-hole to account for the 6-1 final score.
Playing their first set of back-to-backs on the season, the Pens were dented for six goals in each game and never owned a lead in the 120 minutes of hockey they played this weekend, losing for the eighth time in as many games when yielding the game's first goal.
"I just don't think we're putting a game on the ice that gives us a chance to be successful consistently enough," says Pens coach Mike Sullivan. "We have stretches where we bring it, but we get away from it. And when we get away from it, it hurts us."