Special Delivery Lifts Caps to 5-2 Win

Over the course of their first five meetings this season, the Penguins had the advantage over the Capitals in special teams play. But on Thursday night at Capital One Arena, both Washington special teams came through when it mattered, and the result was a 5-2 Caps win.

Tom Wilson's power-play goal snapped a 2-2 tie with 7:20 left in the third, putting the Caps back on top after Pittsburgh erased a two-goal Washington lead in a span of just three minutes. A pair of late empty-netters from Carl Hagelin and Lars Eller, respectively, accounted for the final score.
On Wilson's game-winner, the Caps were able to exploit the shattering of Pens defenseman Kris Letang's stick.
"When a guy loses his stick, it's another advantage in our favor," says Wilson, who survived a Caps penalty-killing mission without his own stick for about 30 seconds earlier in the game. "We were able to execute, and it was in the back of the net."

After a string of recent slow starts, the Caps turned in one of their best first periods in the last several games, jumping out to a 1-0 lead in the process. Washington generated more time in the attack zone, kept its feet moving, created chances and got pucks to the net. Just past the midpoint of the first, the Caps jumped out to a lead they would hold for most of the night.
Washington won a puck battle along the left-wing wall in Pittsburgh ice, and Nicklas Backstrom carried into the lower portion of the left circle. He went cross-ice to Nick Jensen at the top of the right circle. After taking a couple steps toward the net, Jensen sent a sharp feed right back to Backstrom, who completed the give-and-go by shoveling a shot past Tristan Jarry for a 1-0 Washington lead at 11:20.
"I think we got [the Pens] a little out of position," recounts Jensen. "I think the weak side forward wasn't really watching where I was, and Backy made a good play through the middle there to me, and then he was able to find himself and get open again on the back door.
"When you do that double seam pass it tend to throw teams off, when you go right through the seam and then right back through the seam, if you're able to. But he was open, and he made a good finish."
Twenty seconds later, the Penguins went on the first of four power plays they would have in a span of 24 minutes of playing time, all of them with the Caps still nursing that 1-0 lead. The Caps snuffed out all four Pittsburgh power plays, limiting the Pens to four shots on net in those eight minutes with the man advantage.

"The penalty kill was really good," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "You get a lead, you start in the right way, but we found ourselves in a situation where we had to kill a lot of penalties early in the game, and that can definitely switch your game."
Early in the third, T.J. Oshie scored a dazzler of a goal to give the Caps some breathing room. After feeding Lars Eller in neutral ice, Oshie took a return pass and carried into Pittsburgh ice with one man to beat, Pens defenseman Mike Matheson. As he attempted to shimmy around Matheson, Oshie lost his footing but never gave up on the puck. As he went down, he lunged at the puck and managed to elevate it past Jarry for a 2-0 Caps lead at 3:18 of the third.
When Letang was sent off for hooking 14 seconds later, the Caps had a chance to administer the dagger. Instead, it went the other way.
Alex Ovechkin put the puck toward the point, but there was no one home, and Pittsburgh's Brandon Tanev carried into Washington ice on a 2-on-2 and beat Vitek Vanecek at 4:22 of the third to halve the Caps' lead to 2-1.
Exactly three minutes later, Jake Guentzel bounced off a check and cut out of the right corner to the net, threading a shot through the five-hole to knot the score at 2-2.
A hooking penalty on Drew O'Connor and a fortuitous broken stick for Letang set the stage for the game-winner. As Washington worked the puck around the perimeter, Ovechkin pushed it from center point to John Carlson, who was temping in Ovechkin's office. The Caps defenseman briefly surveyed before sending a precision pass to Wilson's tape. From the top of the paint and with the stickless Letang right next to him, Wilson completed the table-hockey tally by jamming and lifting the puck to the shelf to restore the Caps' lead.
The late empty-netters removed any lingering drama, enabling the Caps to finish off a 3-1-1 homestand on a high note.

"I thought we were pretty good the entire game," says Laviolette, "even when they came when they came back in. It was a shorthanded goal and they followed up; they brought one to the net. I still think the guys were pretty confident on the bench with the way we were playing and what we were doing, and we kept with it."
Entering Thursday's game, Pittsburgh had outscored Washington 5-2 in special teams goals in the first five meetings between the two clubs this season.
"I just think we passed up opportunities to shoot the puck," says Pens coach Mike Sullivan of his team's power play performance. "We had a significant amount of zone time, and it didn't translate into as many plays at the net as we could have [had]."