Penguins show sense of urgency in rallying past Capitals for first win

Casey DeSmith kicked the puck into the right corner after making the save on Alex Ovechkin's shootout attempt and pumped his glove hand, beginning the Pittsburgh Penguins' celebration.

A
4-3 victory against the Washington Capitals
at PPG Paints Arena on Sunday brought the Penguins a sense of relief that was evident when they mobbed their goalie afterward. Although this was Pittsburgh's third game of the season, it was desperate for a win after losing its first two to the Philadelphia Flyers by a combed score of 11-5.
The Penguins played Sunday with an urgency appropriate to their situation, battling back after trailing 2-1 and 3-2 before Jake Guentzel scored the lone goal in the shootout and DeSmith made a pad save on Ovechkin to clinch the win.
"It always feels good to win, especially when you lose two early," said Guentzel, who beat Capitals goalie Ilya Samsonov between the pads in the top of the fourth round. "And to get this one when we were down after the first, I think it's big for us and, hopefully, the wins will keep coming."
With the season shortened to 56 games, slow starts will be more difficult for teams to overcome. The Penguins said they feel significantly better being 1-2-0 after coming back to defeat the Capitals than being 0-3-0 would have felt.
"I think it's a big difference," Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. "The importance of these games each and every night is critically important given the shortened, condensed schedule, the less amount of games. We've had that discussion on a number of occasions. There's a heightened importance on every game we play."

That was evident in Sullivan's decision to start DeSmith, Pittsburgh's backup, over Tristan Jarry in the first of eight games against the rival Capitals this season. Jarry struggled in his first two starts as the Penguins No. 1 goalie after Matt Murray was traded to the Ottawa Senators in the offseason, including being pulled after giving up three goals on six shots in the opening 11:30 of a 5-2 loss at Philadelphia on Friday.
So Sullivan gave DeSmith, who spent last season with the Penguins' American Hockey League affiliate in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, his first NHL start since March 14, 2019.
"We just thought it was the best decision for the group for this game," Sullivan said.
DeSmith responded by making 20 saves in regulation and overtime then stopping T.J. Oshie, Nicklas Backstrom, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Ovechkin in the shootout. With a chance to extend the shootout, Ovechkin tried to shoot between DeSmith's pads, but DeSmith kept them together enough to make the save.
"Usually in shootouts, he tends to shoot more often than deke and I was just able to get enough when he shot five-hole," DeSmith said. "Then, I saw the puck in my feet, and I was ecstatic."
The Penguins played far from a perfect game. After Evan Rodrigues scored a goal that deflected in off his skate to give Pittsburgh a 1-0 lead 19 seconds in, defensive-zone turnovers led to goals from Nic Dowd and Ovechkin that gave Washington a 2-1 lead after one period.

The Penguins picked up their play in the second period, though, and limited the Capitals to one even-strength shot on goal over the 20 minutes. A puck-handling error by Samsonov led to Colton Sceviour's goal that tied the score at 2-2 at 2:10 before Pittsburgh defenseman Marcus Pettersson answered Backstrom's power-play goal at 10:09 by scoring from the slot at 12:57 of the second.
"We didn't start the way we wanted to today," Guentzel said. "So to get back to the way we want to play the last two periods, I think, was what we needed to do."
The Penguins hope to continue that when they host the Capitals again Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; NBCSN, SN, ATTSN-PT, NBCSWA, NHL.TV). They have plenty of room for improvement.
Center Evgeni Malkin continues to search for his first point of the season but played better as the game went on, creating good scoring chances late in the third period and during overtime. And Pittsburgh needs to clean up the defensive-zone turnovers that hurt them Sunday and in the losses to the Flyers.
But everything looked a lot better after a win.
"We come out of the first couple of games without any points. I thought we played better than the result that we got, but that's hockey," Sullivan said. "Sometimes that happens. So we just had to make sure we responded the right way today, and to get two points, I think, is important for our team. I was happy for our players. I think that should give them a boost of confidence."