Guentzel scores twice, Penguins even series with Capitals
By WILL GRAVES, AP Sports Writer
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Jake Guentzel scored twice to push his playoff total to a league-leading 10, Matt Murray stopped 20 shots and the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Washington Capitals 3-1 in Game 4 to even their tense Eastern Conference semifinal on Thursday night.
Evgeni Malkin added his fourth goal of the playoffs for Pittsburgh as the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions pushed back following a chaotic Game 3 that included an illegal hit by Washington forward Tom Wilson that led to a three-game suspension.
T.J. Oshie scored for the Capitals, but Washington struggled to find much operating room. Alex Ovechkin failed to register a shot on goal for just the third time in 107 career playoff games. Braden Holtby finished with 21 saves but couldn’t quite get a handle on Malkin’s belly-flop shot attempt late in the second period that put Pittsburgh in front to stay.
Game 5 is Saturday night in Washington.
The Capitals grabbed brief control of the series amid all of the Wilson-led Game 3 chippiness when Ovechkin baseball-batted home the winning goal with 1:07 to play. True playoff momentum for Washington, however, has been problematic for decades. The franchise is 6-11 in series in which it led 2-1 after three games, the worst mark in NHL history.
Given a chance to push Pittsburgh to the brink of elimination, Washington instead struggled to generate much pressure outside of the power play. Devante Smith-Pelly replaced Wilson on the top line with Ovechkin and Evgeny Kuznetsov, but Pittsburgh kept the clamps on, and Murray, who admitted he was “shaky” in Game 3, looked far steadier this time around.
Wilson’s absence brought a sense of normalcy. The vitriol calmed a bit, replaced by the taut intensity that’s come to define one of the NHL’s marquee rivalries.
Guentzel gave the Penguins the lead 9:21 into the second period when he stood on the doorstep and banged home a rebound of Dominik Simon’s shot for his ninth of the playoffs and his 20th point of the postseason. Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier in 1988 are the last two players to reach 20 points in 10 or fewer postseason games.
The 23-year-old, however, is still learning. He committed a slashing penalty after putting the Penguins in front, and Oshie’s shot from the slot 12:55 into the second tied it.
Malkin went to his belly to put Pittsburgh back in front with 2:33 to go in the second. The Russian star flung himself at the puck during a scrum in the crease, the puck just flitting over the goal line following a scramble. There was no initial goal call on the play, reminiscent of a sequence in Game 2 in which the red goal light remained unlit after Pittsburgh’s Patric Hornqvist jabbed at it from in front.
Replays in Game 2 proved inconclusive and the Capitals held on. This time, the review was kinder to the Penguins. Video clearly showed the puck inching across the line, and it stood after the Capitals challenged due to goalie interference.
Unlike Game 3, in which the Penguins let a one-goal lead get away over the final 20 minutes, Guentzel added an empty-netter with 58 seconds remaining to assure the series will go at least six games. Hardly new territory for either club. Nine of their 11 playoff meetings have gone at least six games.
NOTES: Pittsburgh F Carl Hagelin played 16:11 while wearing a full face shield in his return from an upper-body injury that forced him to miss the first three games of the series. … The Capitals have scored a playoff goal in nine of 10 playoff games. … The loss was Washington’s first on the road in the playoffs (4-1). … The Capitals were 1 for 3 on the power play. The Penguins were 2 for 4.
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Penguins erase 2-goal deficit, beat Capitals 3-2 in Game 1
By STEPHEN WHYNO, AP Hockey Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) — Patric Hornqvist, Sidney Crosby and Jake Guentzel scored in a 4:49 span to help the Pittsburgh Penguins rally to beat the Washington Capitals 3-2 on Thursday night in Game 1 of the second-round series.
Down 2-0 early in the third period and playing without Evgeni Malkin and Carl Hagelin, Pittsburgh turned it around with all three of its top-line forwards chipping in a goal. Crosby scored the tying goal when the puck bounced to him off Alex Ovechkin’s stick, and assisted on Guentzel’s go-ahead goal.
Matt Murray stopped 32 of the 34 shots he faced to put the back-to-back defending Stanley Cup champions ahead in yet another series with Game 2 on Sunday in Washington. The Penguins have won nine in a row under coach Mike Sullivan dating to 2016, including the past two meetings against Washington.
Evgeny Kuznetsov scored 17 seconds in and Ovechkin beat Murray 28 seconds into the third period for the Capitals, who lost a game started by Braden Holtby for the first time in these playoffs. Holtby was one of the best players on the ice in the first two periods before he and his teammates blew another two-goal lead.
Holtby allowed three goals on 25 shots, including at least one he’d like to have back during the Penguins’ comeback. It was his worst game since replacing Philipp Grubauer in net during the first round against Columbus.
It also was another stellar showing by Murray, who made his best save with 2:30 left when he got his stick on a shot by Brett Connolly. Murray earlier kept the puck out against a net-crashing Devante Smith-Pelly and made a save on a point-blank chance by Michal Kempny.
Murray took a shot off the mask from Ovechkin in the third but made save after save down the stretch with the Capitals pressing.
NOTES: Kuznetsov’s goal was the second-fastest in Capitals playoff history after Mike Gartner scored 15 seconds in against the Islanders in 1987. … The Capitals have killed 18 consecutive penalties dating to Game 2 against Columbus. .., Malkin skated Thursday morning with teammates, while Hagelin did not make the trip. Malkin could be an option for Game 2 if his apparent leg injury has healed enough. … Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan opted to maintain balance in his lineup, putting Riley Sheahan with Simon and Phil Kessel and keeping Derick Brassard with Conor Sheary and Bryan Rust.
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Guentzel scores 4 goals to lead Penguins to Game 6 clinch
By DAN GELSTON, AP Sports Writer
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Jake Guentzel scored four straight goals to help send the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins into the next round with an 8-5 win over the Philadelphia Flyers in Game 6 on Sunday.
The Penguins play the winner of the Washington-Columbus series in the Eastern Conference playoffs. Washington leads that series 3-2.
Sean Couturier also had a hat trick for the Flyers, who haven’t won a Stanley Cup since 1975.
Guentzel, not Sidney Crosby, Phil Kessel or the injured Evgeni Malkin, won the game for the Penguins with goals off costly Flyers turnovers, leading them to their ninth straight playoff series win.
He tied the game at 4 with 54 seconds left in the second period off a Flyers turnover. He scored 30 seconds into the third for the lead off another giveaway, and sealed one more lopsided win over the Flyers with two goals 10 seconds apart late in the period.
It was 2-2 after one period, 4-4 after two, and nothing was decided in the fiercest game of the series between the longstanding rivals until Guentzel took control.
The Flyers lost all three games at home and not even a solid start could help them get out of the first round for the first time since 2012.
Couturier had been the Flyers’ postseason savior, returning from a serious leg injury to score the Game 5 winner and then open Game 6 with his third goal of the series just 2:15 into the game.
The Penguins, who won Games 3 and 4 in Philly, took aim on the road sweep with two straight goals. Crosby, naturally, tied the game when he knocked in a rebound off Kris Letang’s point shot for his whopping sixth goal of the series. His goal was still being announced when Carl Hagelin made it 2-1 when he was left all alone in front of the net for the easy goal.
Philly’s defense was nonexistent and the Flyers had no bodies on Crosby and especially Hagelin on the gimme goals against Michal Neuvirth.
Andrew MacDonald tied it 2-all on a sizzling shot. The defenseman briefly gave his team the spark needed to go toe-to-toe with the Penguins. Couturier scored his second of the game on a beautiful breakaway to open the second period and Scott Laughton scored on a long wrister and nearly pulled off a Lambeau Leap over the boards in celebration.
Matt Murray should have stopped the goal — the kind of bad goal usually allowed by the Flyers — and the crowd derisively chanted his name.
Patric Hornqvist scored his second of the series to pull the Penguins to 4-3.
The series had been more cordial than confrontational but both teams cranked up the nastiness levels in Game 6. Penguins forward Carter Rowney cross-checked Travis Konency and roughed him up on the ice while the officials just watched. Konecny jumped up and — like a wrestling heel smacking his opponent with a steel chair — cracked Sheary in the back with his stick and was whistled for roughing. Flyers coach Dave Hakstol gave the refs an earful while the fans howled as the hits were shown on replay.
But that was about the last crowd-pleasing play by the Flyers. The Flyers failed to take a shot on goal until nearly 12 minutes into the third period and Couturier capped his three-goal game with 2:53 left to play.
Bryan Rust scored an empty-netter with 30 seconds left to ensure the Penguins got all four of their wins by at least three goals.
NOTES: Malkin was scratched with a leg injury. … The so-called home ice edge in Philly lost some shine with large pockets of empty seats for a must-win Game 6. … The Penguins scored five-plus goals against the Flyers eight times in 10 games this season. … It wasn’t all bad news for Philly in its rivalry with Pittsburgh: The Phillies completed a four-game sweep of the Pirates across the street.
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