Pens Drop Caps, 4-1

Three Pittsburgh goals in the second period were enough to break the Pens' seven-game losing streak (0-6-1) on Wednesday night in Washington. The Pens became the fifth team to hang a crooked number on the board against the Caps in the second period this season, putting up three goals in just over seven minutes on their way to a 4-1 victory.

The loss was Washington's fifth in its last six games (1-3-2).
"The first period was kind of split," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "The first 10 [minutes] went our way, and the last 10 went their way. In the second period, they were able to capitalize a little bit more on the bounces. We had opportunities, and we couldn't put them in, and they had some bounces that went their way."
Since scoring a season-high four goals at 5-on-5 in a 6-3 win over the Devils on Oct. 24, the Caps have managed just eight goals in as many games at 5-on-5, 29th in the League over that span.
Scoring chances in the game were fairly even on both sides, but Pittsburgh made the most of its opportunities and managed its three-goal outburst in the second despite being credited with only two high danger scoring chances in that frame, according to naturalstattrick.com. The Caps might have been at their best in the front half of the first frame when they generated a series of scoring chances and threatened to take an early lead, but they weren't able to do so.
Washington had five shots on net in the first five minutes, a trio of them from 20 feet or closer. But the Caps managed just one shot - a 58-footer from rookie defenseman Alex Alexeyev - over the next 13-plus minutes, a stretch in which Washington was guilty of icing the puck four times. Pittsburgh won each of those ensuing offensive zone draws, which didn't lend any aid to the Caps' offensive cause.
"I felt like at the end of the first, they kind of took over a little bit," says Marcus Johansson, who scored Washington's lone goal in the third period. "And we had a few opportunities to get back on the power play, and we didn't take it, we didn't execute. I almost feel like that took momentum away from us instead of building momentum, which is not how it should be. And then it was just an uphill battle."
Things disintegrated on the Caps just ahead of the eight-minute mark of the second, and the first goal was very much of the fluky variety. A centering feed off the stick of Jason Zucker and intended for Rickard Rakell went instead into the pads of Caps goalie Darcy Kuemper and wobbled through and over the goal line at 7:43.
"It was a shot that kind of bounced down between my legs and trickled behind me," recounts Kuemper. "I tried to squeeze my legs together to get a whistle, and unfortunately I kicked it in."
Less than five minutes later, Washington went on its second power play of the night with a chance to pull even. Instead, Brock McGinn doubled the Pittsburgh lead on a shorthanded goal at 12:53. Erik Gustafsson lost the handle on a breakout high in Washington ice, where Jeff Carter collected and fed McGinn, whose shot trickled through the five-hole to make it 2-0.
"He got a breakaway there, and I got a good piece of it," says Kuemper. "And it was kind of a weird one that bounced between both knees and then unfortunately spun into the net."
Pens defenseman Jeff Petry put the Caps down three - the first time they've been in a hole that deep before the end of the second this season - with a drive from center point at 15:05 of the third.
Pittsburgh's three-goal middle frame marked the fifth time this season - and second time in as many games - that an opponent has hung a crooked number on the board against Washington in the second period this season.
By the start of the third, the Pens were down to four defensemen, with Jan Rutta having exited with an upper body injury and Pierre-Olivier Joseph out with a lower body injury. When Petry hobbled off early in the third, the Pens were briefly down to three blueliners, and center Jeff Carter took a shift on the blue line before Petry's return.
The Caps weren't able to capitalize on Pittsburgh's misfortune in the final frame, and too many of their offensive-zone forays were of the one-and-done variety.
Washington was finally able to get on the board after a losing a draw in Pittsburgh ice and putting some forechecking heat on the Pens. Nick Jensen kept a clearing effort in at the right point and put the puck behind the Pittsburgh net for Sonny Milano, who made a perfect feed to the front for Johansson to make it a 3-1 game at 12:22 of the third.
Jake Guentzel's late empty-netter accounted for the 4-1 final.
"I thought the four [defensemen] that had to play the rest of the game did a terrific job," says Pens coach Mike Sullivan. "That's not an easy task, and I thought they did a tremendous job just keeping the game simple, managing the game appropriately, and I thought our forwards did a pretty good job helping them."
Milestone Men -A pair of the younger Caps reached games played milestones in Wednesday's game with the Pens. Milano skated in his 200th game - collecting the primary helper on Washington's only goal - and Caps blueliner Martin Fehervary played in his 100th NHL contest.
At the other end of the age spectrum, Caps captain Alex Ovechkin and Pittsburgh counterpart Sidney Crosby entered Wednesday's game with 1,423 career points each, 17 years and a few weeks after each began his NHL career on the same night, Oct. 5, 2005. Ovechkin and Crosby entered Wednesday's game tied for 18th on the NHL's all-time scoring list.
Ovechkin was pointless on the night, ending a six-game point streak. Crosby collected an assist to leave town a point ahead of The Great Eight on that list. Crosby is now in sole possession of 18th place, one point behind Bryan Trottier (1,425) for the 17th spot on the list.