Caps Square Series with 4-1 Game 2 Win Over Pens

There were more than a few anxious moments along the way, but the Caps came out with another strong first period on Sunday afternoon in Game 2 of their second-round Stanley Cup playoff series with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

For the second straight game, Washington created an early lead for itself in the opening seconds of the first period. Unlike Game 1 when they weren't able to add to that lead until the third and eventually lost it and Game 1, this time the Caps built a two-goal lead with a dominant first-period performance, and were able to maintain a cushion at least that big the rest of the way en route to a 4-1, series-tying victory.

Having split the two games in the District, the teams will move on to Pittsburgh for the next two. Game 3 is Tuesday night at PPG Paints Arena.

"The first [game] didn't go our way," says Caps goalie Braden Holtby. "so you need that second one - especially against a team like Pittsburgh - to give yourself the best chance you can the rest of the series. We accomplished our goal tonight, now it's to move forward and really focus on Game 3."

Twice on Sunday, the Caps squirmed for several minutes while the NHL's powers that be took a good, long video look at a couple of key plays in the contest. The first of those came in the opening frame when the Pens challenged Washington's second goal, alleging goaltender interference on Caps winger Brett Connolly. The second came midway through the third when it appeared as though Pens winger Patric Hornqvist may have tucked the puck just inside the right post.

Both calls went Washington's way, and both kept that aforementioned two-goal cushion intact for the Capitals.

For the second straight game, the Caps wasted little time in jumping out to a lead. With an inadvertent assist from Pittsburgh winger Patric Hornqvist, Caps captain Alex Ovechkin gave his team a 1-0 lead at 1:26 of the first. Backchecking to try to prevent a two-on-one Washington rush, Hornqvist managed to stick-lift Evgeny Kunzetsov from behind, but he then swept the puck right to Ovechkin's tape; the play had the same effect as a Kuznetsov pass. Ovechkin accepted the gift and beat Pens goalie Matt Murray from between the circles on a wrist shot, high to the glove side.

"It was a bit of a broken play," says Murray. "Puck comes to him coming a million miles an hour down the slot, and he just rips it. He is one of the best shooters in the game. He put a pretty good shot on it."

Washington continued to put offensive zone heat on the Penguins, both via the rush and with sustained offensive-zone time. One of the Caps' greatest shortcomings in Game 1 was their inability to add to an early lead until the third period. They seemed determined to do so more expeditiously this time around, but Murray was excellent once again.

Pittsburgh got the game's first power play opportunity a few minutes ahead of the midpoint of the first, but Washington generated more prime scoring chances than did Pittsburgh over the game's next two minutes. The Caps couldn't quite convert on a shorthanded, two-on-one rush, and Murray made an excellent stop to deny Alex Chiasson's shorthanded try from the slot after taking a surreptitious feed from Nicklas Backstrom.

Washington got its first full power play of the series in the back half of the first, and the Caps cashed in late in that man advantage to double their lead. With time ticking down on the man advantage, Holtby quickly pushed the puck up ice to try to take advantage of a Pittsburgh change. Lars Eller and Jakub Vrana exchanged the puck a couple of times in the zone, and Vrana supplied the finish, beating Murray on the short side at 14:54 to make it 2-0.

A couple of seconds before Vrana's first career playoff goal, Connolly whacked Murray's right pad, and that was the basis for the Pens' unsuccessful challenge. The review went on long enough to make the District crowd nervous, but Caps had a 2-0 lead and they were able to take it to the room after 20 minutes of play.

Each team had one power play chance in the first, but the Caps came out of that frame with a 20-10 lead in shots on goal and a 36-17 advantage in shot attempts.

Early in the second, the Caps extended their lead by a goal when Connolly netted his own first career playoff goal on a breakaway. Eller sprung him into Pittsburgh ice, and Connolly's shot glanced off Murray's catching glove and bounded in to make it a 3-0 game at 2:08 of the second.

"It was a big goal," says Caps coach Barry Trotz. "I thought to that point in time, we had lots of chances and didn't really bury some. We got that opportunity and were able to get a little bit of breathing room. It was a big goal; they're all big goals."

Washington took its foot off the gas at this juncture and worse, it kept mismanaging the puck and shortening the ice for the Pens with unwise plays, reads and decision-making. Holtby turned in another sturdy performance, stopping 15 of 16 in the middle frame.

A Kris Letang floater through traffic from the right point nestled just under the crossbar on the short side to shorten the gap to 3-1 at 13:04 of the second.

The Pens played most of the game without top pair defenseman Brian Dumoulin, who left the game after being simultaneously hit by Ovechkin and Tom Wilson early in the second, leaving Pittsburgh with five blueliners the rest of the way.

"Well, it's tough," says Sullivan. "He is one of our best defensemen. When you lose a guy that early in the game, you've got to find ways to make up for the contribution that he makes. He is an important player for us. So it presents a big challenge for the rest of the defensemen."

Washington tightened up a bit in its own end in the third period, and while the Pens still had a fair amount of offensive-zone time, they weren't able to generate as many good looks as they had in the second. But they appeared to pull to within a goal with 10:57 remaining in regulation.

Sidney Crosby carried around the back of the Caps' cage with speed, and he appeared to have enough room to execute a wraparound shot. But he put it softly off the side of the cage, and it slowly slid to the front of the net, where Hornqvist put a stick on net and tried to jam it through Holtby's left pad.

Officials on the ice never gave the signal for a goal, but NBC's graphics on the telecast had the goal on the board. The lords of the video looked at all the available angles, but they ultimately determined that "… there were no definitive replays which showed that the puck completely crossed the Washington goal line."

It stayed 3-1.

"My view was that it's 100 percent a goal," says Pens coach Mike Sullivan. "When you blow it up, you can see the white. It's behind the post. Whether you use deductive reasoning or you can see the white - whatever it may be - that's how we saw it. So we respectfully disagree with the league and their ruling, but that's not anything that we can control."

Pittsburgh took a couple of penalties in the back half of the third, muting its opportunity to climb back into the contest. The Pens got a power play of their own with just over three minutes remaining when Kuznetsov took a selfish slashing minor on Letang, and they pulled Murray to give themselves a six-on-four manpower advantage, but to no avail.

Pittsburgh teed up a total of 25 shots in the final frame, but the Pens were only able to get seven of those on Holtby. Washington blocked 31 Pittsburgh shots in the game, and 13 of those blocks came in the final frame.

A Backstrom empty-netter in the waning seconds accounted for the 4-1 final.

With 32 saves on the night, Holtby earned his fifth victory in six starts in the playoffs.

"We came out really well," says Holtby. "We came out the way we needed to, especially in our home rink, and the rest of the game was just kind of grinding each way.

"I thought we played more of our style tonight. We forced them to play more into our game and not trading chances off the rush; more dumping it in and playing support, a hard style of hockey. I think we forced that, and that's what you can do in your home rink. Now it's our job to focus on game 3 and how we can have success in their rink."