Penguins defeat Capitals in shootout for first win; Ovechkin scores

PITTSBURGH -- Casey DeSmith made 20 saves in his first NHL start in almost two years to help the Pittsburgh Penguins defeat the Washington Capitals 4-3 in the shootout at PPG Paints Arena on Sunday.

DeSmith had not started in the NHL since March 14, 2019. Evan Rodrigues, Colton Sceviour and Marcus Pettersson scored for the Penguins (1-2-0), who won for the first time this season after being outscored 11-5 in their first two games against the Philadelphia Flyers.
"The only thing I was focused on was getting a win," said DeSmith, who came in to make 12 saves after Tristan Jarry allowed three goals on six shots in a 5-2 loss to Philadelphia on Friday. "First period they got two on me. Was glad I could battle back."
Alex Ovechkin had a goal and an assist, and Ilya Samsonov made 24 saves for Washington (2-0-1), which will play Pittsburgh again here Tuesday.
The goal was Ovechkin's first of the season and 707th in the NHL, one from tying Mike Gartner for seventh on the NHL goals list.
"It's the third game, you know, after months of time off without hockey," Ovechkin said. "It's the third game and we played against a really good team. … Have to kind of wake up and know exactly what you have to do."

Jake Guentzel scored the only goal in the shootout on a backhand five-hole. DeSmith denied T.J. Oshie, Nicklas Backstrom, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Ovechkin.
"I think you kind of watch the shooter before," Guentzel said of his shootout goal. "I'm sure each player has their go-to moves and a couple of options. I kind of figured I would do that one watching [the shootout] early."
After Rodrigues put the Penguins ahead 1-0 by redirecting a shot from Brian Dumoulin with his skate 19 seconds into the first period, Nic Dowd tied it 1-1 on a backhand at 12:04 of the first.

Ovechkin gave the Capitals a 2-1 lead at 14:24 of the first after Kuznetsov attempted a centering pass that hit Pettersson. That left the puck in the crease for Ovechkin to score on a backhand.
Sceviour tied it 2-2 at 2:10 of the second period. Samsonov collected the puck behind the net and had a pass intercepted by Teddy Blueger, who found Sceviour out front for a wrist shot before Samsonov could get back.
The puck was determined to have fully crossed the goal line during a review.
Backstrom tapped in a backdoor pass on a 4-on-3 power play, giving the Capitals a 3-2 lead at 10:09 of the second, before Pettersson tied it 3-3 with a wrist shot at 12:57 of that period.
"I don't think we had the start we wanted, something we need to address," Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. "I loved the response of our team. I thought our guys played hard in the second and third against a really good team. ... We need to have that sort of effort but also playing with a sense of purpose and I thought we did that in the second and the third."

Washington was outshot 11-3 in the second.
"I think we did a good job in the first period," Dowd said. "Developed our forecheck really good. I think that's going to be a big key to our game, no matter who we play. But I thought we did a poor job in the second. We just threw a lot of pucks away."
Ovechkin nearly put Washington back on top when his one-timer hit each post on a power play with 8:52 remaining in the third period.
"I liked the first period. I liked the way we started," Capitals coach Peter Laviolette said. "The third period was competitive. The second period, I wasn't real happy with. There's things that we're doing with the puck that aren't going to lead to us being and staying in the offensive zone. That has to get cleaned up.
"So again, it's early on. It's Game 3. We'll continue to show these things and work on these things."
NOTE:Defenseman Juuso Riikola replaced Mike Matheson in Pittsburgh's lineup. Sullivan said Matheson will be out "longer-term" with an upper-body injury.