Penguins Battle Back but Fall Just Short to Capitals
The Pittsburgh Penguins crawled back from being down four early goals, but it just wasn't enough against the Washington Capitals.
In their first game of 2024, the Pittsburgh Penguins were hosting a heated rival in the Washington Capitals and there was quite a bit on the line for both teams.
The Penguins are riding a hot streak and could use a victory to advance closer to a playoff spot, while the Capitals have been trending in the wrong direction.
Both teams entered the night with 40 standings points, just one points back of the Eastern Conference’s second wild card spot.
First Period
The Capitals wasted no time in getting on the board first on a perfectly placed shot from Tom Wilson just under a minute into the contest.
To add insult to injury, the Penguins had a brutal start to the period recording only one shot through the first 10 minutes.
The Penguins continued fall behind when a pass went off of Ryan Graves’ stick and over Tristan Jarry to give the Capitals a 2-0 lead.
Just over a minute later, the Capitals scored their third goal of the contest and forced an early goalie change for the Penguins.
Alex Nedeljkovic came in to relieve Jarry after just 13 minutes of game time.
The Penguins grabbed a quick couple of chances to find the scoresheet, but both fell flat.
A shot sat behind Darcy Kuemper in the crease, but Jeff Carter failed to get any good wood on the puck and the Capitals kept it out.
Chad Ruhwedel let go a shot that found it’s way past Kuemper, but the Capitals challenge the play for offside and overturned the goal.
The Capitals took advantage of the extra momentum provided by still holding their lead by adding a power play goal off the stick of Alex Ovechkin.
The tally gave the Capitals a 4-0 lead and seemed to smell an early end for the Penguins, but they managed to break the shutout with a goal extremely late in the opening frame.
On the heels of a hard shift from the first line, Rickard Rakell banged home his third of the season with four seconds remaining.
A first period that leaned completely in the Capitals favor finally came to an end giving the Penguins a massive hill to climb for the final four minutes.
Second Period
The first portion of the period didn’t add much offense for either side as the Penguins only managed a couple of shots on goal before getting their first power play opportunity of the night.
It was a chance that took some time, but the Penguins eventually broke through for a hard-fought power play goal.
Sidney Crosby, with a black eye and stitches on his cheek, went to the crease to swat home an airborne puck while falling.
The Penguins did their best to keep their foot on the pedal and didn’t leave the second period without clawing their way to a third goal.
A great pass from Crosby found Guentzel who was determined to score and didn’t let up banking home his own rebound opportunity.
Crosby’s assist moved him into sole possession of 12th place on the all-time NHL scoring list; his 1,540th point pushes him past Joe Thornton.
The second period came to an end with the Penguins still down, but beginning to swing momentum into their favor.
Third Period
Entering the third period, the hill was much shorter for the Penguins to climb, but they still had some fighting to do.
An early power play opportunity came up empty for the Penguins forcing them to keep clawing for every ounce of offense they could find.
Just past the midway point of the frame, a second man advantage chance opened up for the Penguins.
That opportunity also came and went without a capitalization.
Time started to wind down on the Penguins chances despite them driving most of the play and continuing to press an attack.
With Nedeljkovic at the bench for the extra attacker, the Penguins gave one last gasp in the final two minutes.
The Capitals managed to hold on and fend off the Penguins final push to seal a win despite allowing three unanswered goals.
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