#CapsPens Postgame Notebook: Leading Men

The Capitals owned a lead for less than five minutes total in Tuesday's Game 3 against the Pittsburgh Penguins, but they held the lead when it mattered most, at the sound of the buzzer at game's end. Alex Ovechkin's goal with 67 seconds left in regulation broke a 3-3 tie and lifted the Caps to a 4-3 win.

Washington has owned the lead for more than 105 of the 180 minutes played between these two rivals in this series, but the most important and elusive lead the Caps hold now is the 2-1 edge they own in the series. After being down 1-3 to the Penguins four games into each of the two previous second-round series between the two clubs, the Caps find themselves in unfamiliar territory - at least for the Barry Trotz-era Caps - leading Pittsburgh in a playoff series.

Tuesday's game was replete with lead changes and momentum shifts. The game was even at 0-0, 1-1, 2-2 and 3-3. The Caps led 1-0 and 4-3. The Pens led 2-1 and 3-2. Both teams found themselves alternately riding the wave and fighting it in what has been a vastly entertaining series.

"I thought we played better overall for 60 minutes," says Caps center Nicklas Backstrom. "If you look at the first three games here, we're playing better as a team for 60 minutes tonight. Our third period tonight was probably our best, and it was exactly what we needed."

The Caps came to Pittsburgh for these two games knowing they would need to win a game in this building, and knowing they would have to win consecutive games at some point if they were going to win the series. They achieved each of those objectives in Game 3, and in doing so, they've also restored the home ice advantage in the series. Pittsburgh had previously wrested that away from the Capitals by winning Game 1 in Washington.

"Coming here, we had one thing in mind," says Trotz. "It was just this game. Let's just work on this game. I think this group has learned not to look too far ahead, not to get too comfortable. We've had to work hard - we've had a lot of changes in our team all year to sort of get a little bit of an identity. Each group every year forges a new identity, and this group continues to forge a little bit of an identity.

"We've got some confidence in our group, they have confidence in each other and they have trust in each other. They're playing for keeps - both teams are. In the last couple of years, we haven't been in this position where we been able to come in and regain home ice advantage. We're just going to focus on the next game now."

The last time the Caps led a playoff series against Pittsburgh was their 1-0 series lead after T.J. Oshie's overtime goal gave Washington a 4-3 win in Game 1 of the 2016 second-round set between the two teams.

Dynamic Duo -Nicklas Backstrom set up Ovechkin's game-winner, feeding the Caps' captain on a two-on-one rush. Ovechkin's initial shot hit the right goal post, but he followed up and swatted the rebound out of midair and into the net to give Washington the win.

The game-winner came at the end of a shift in which the Pens' top forward line had the Caps hemmed in their own zone until Backstrom collected an Olli Maatta turnover and skated up ice with Ovechkin on a two-on-one with Kris Letang as the lone man back for Pittsburgh.

"You know, we have extended zone time with that shift, and we've just got to be smarter with the puck at that time of the game and in that area of the rink," says Pens coach Mike Sullivan, "and make sure that we give our forwards another opportunity to make a play at the net.

"It was unfortunate, because we had pretty good momentum at that particular point of the game. We had our top line on the ice, we felt like the other team was tired and we had an extended zone shift. So it was disappointing, but that's part of the game. We've got to do a better job. We've got to learn from it."

According to Elias Sports Bureau, Tuesday's goal was the 250th scored by Ovechkin with an assist from Backstrom. Twenty of those goals have come in the playoffs, and the other 230 in the regular season.

Helping Hands -Backstrom notched a trio of assists in Tuesday's game, following Lars Eller's three-assist effort in Sunday's Game 2. It's the second time in his career that Backstrom has had three helpers in a playoff game; the first was on April 20, 2009 against the Rangers in New York.

In Washington's playoff history, there have been 26 three-assist games achieved by 18 different players. No player has more than two, and Backstrom joins Ovechkin, John Carlson, Sylvain Cote, Geoff Courntall, Calle Johansson, Joé Juneau and Mike Ridley on the list of players with two such postseason performances.

The Caps have played nine games in the 2018 Stanley Cup playoffs, and they've had five three-assist games thus far. In addition to Eller and Backstrom in this round against the Penguins, Carlson recorded three-assist games in each of the first two games of the first-round series against Columbus, and Evgeny Kuznetsov also had three helpers in a game in the series against the Blue Jackets.

Biting The Hand That Once Fed Him - Former Pens defenseman Matt Niskanen was critical in delivering Tuesday's victory over his former employer. Niskanen swept a loose puck out of the Washington crease in the second period - taking a virtually certain Pittsburgh goal off the board - and he netted the game-tying goal early in the third period.

"That just shows you how close things are," muses Niskanen of affecting a two-goal swing against his former team. "It's a funny game, boy. Sometimes that puck takes different bounce and the score can be completely different.

"Guys just battled through it and found a way. That's what it's going to take, big-time efforts from a lot of guys and that's a big win. Game [3] is a big one, and let's get greedy now and go after Game 4."

Both of Niskanen's two playoff goals as a member of the Capitals have come against the Penguins. He scored in Game 2 of last spring's series against the Pens as well.

Eight For Eight - Ovechkin scored for the fourth straight game in these playoffs, and he has five goals in those contests. Overall, he has eight goals in nine postseason games, the second-most he has scored in a single playoff year. Ovechkin had 11 goals and 21 points in 14 games in the 2009 Stanley Cup playoffs.

Tuesday's game-winner was the seventh of Ovechkin's postseason career, the most in franchise history.

Road Warriors - Washington has won four straight games on the road in the same playoff year for the first time since 1998 when it advanced to the Stanley Cup final. The Caps won seven of their first eight road games that spring, and it won four straight in taking Game 4 of its second-round series over the Senators in Ottawa and then winning each of its three road games in the Eastern Conference final against Buffalo.

Man Down - Penguins forward Zach Aston-Reese left Tuesday's game after absorbing a Tom Wilson hit midway through the second period. Both players had a head of steam going when they collided, and Aston-Reese was bleeding when he got up off the ice.

Pittsburgh generally is tight-lipped about its ailments and uses "upper body" and "lower body" designations for its injuries, but Sullivan divulged Aston-Reese's diagnosis without being prompted, and went on to lobby for the long arm of the league to get involved after Pittsburgh lost a player because of a Wilson hit for the second straight game. Defenseman Brian Dumoulin left Sunday's Game 2 after taking a Wilson hit in the second period, but he practiced the next day and played nearly 20 minutes in Game 3.

"We just have to stay focused, you know?" says Sullivan. "We lose a guy to a broken jaw that's going to require surgery and a concussion because of another high hit to the head. So you know, at some point, we would hope that the league might do something. But as far as we're concerned, all we can do is control what's within our power, and that's our focus on the game. So that's where our focus will be."

Neither of those Wilson hits resulted in a penalty during those games, but the league's department of player safety Tweeted on Wednesday morning that Wilson would have a hearing on Wednesday for what DPS termed in the Tweet "an illegal check to the head," which sounds as if the powers that be may have reached a conclusion before the hearing starts.

Avoiding Tailspins -Pittsburgh entered Tuesday's game with a 16-3 record following losses in the playoffs over the last three playoff seasons, including the current one. Washington is the only team to beat the Pens in consecutive postseason games twice during that stretch; the Caps also won Games 5 and 6 against the Pens last spring.

Tampa Bay won two straight against the Pens in the 2016 Eastern Conference final, and Nashville won two straight against Pittsburgh in the Cup final last spring. No team has won three straight playoff games against Pittsburgh during that span, a feat the Caps will be trying to achieve in Thursday's Game 4.

By The Numbers - Carlson led the Capitals with 29:17 in ice time and four shots on net … Ovechkin's game-winner came on his 10thshot attempt of the night - the most among Caps players - but just his second shot on goal of the game … Wilson led all players on both sides with nine hits … Brooks Orpik led the Caps with four blocked shots … Pittsburgh outhit the Caps 52-41 on the night and the Pens won 36 of the game's 59 puck drops (61%) … Both the Caps and the Pens finished the game with identical shot totals - each team put 22 on net, each team had a dozen shot tries blocked, and each team missed the mark 14 times.