WASHINGTON – As Nicklas Backstrom scored the extra point on the Washington Capitals’ touchdown, he barely flinched as the red goal light went off for a seventh time. The scoring got to be so much that flashy celebrations stopped being necessary.
The Capitals had made their point, announcing that their vaunted offense was back. Then they made it again and again.
After struggling to score recently, the Capitals poured it on against the Penguins, beating the defending champions, 7-1, a statement win that pulled them even with Pittsburgh in the Metropolitan Division standings.
The win snapped a two-game losing streak for Washington (10-4-2), and the seven-goal outpouring was an encouraging sign for a team that had scored just five goals in the past four games. Backstrom led the way with a five-point performance. T.J. Oshie scored two goals and had two assists. Defenseman Dmitry Orlov scored his first goal of the season, and Justin Williams added a power-play goal in the third period. Oh, and Alex Ovechkin scored, too.
Goaltender Braden Holtby nearly got his first shutout of the season, stopping all 24 Pittsburgh shots he saw until Phil Kessel swept a puck in from the crease with 3:32 remaining.
After an overtime loss at Columbus on Tuesday night, the Capitals again bemoaned their scoring woes, a troubling predicament for a team with Washington’s forward depth. Frequent line changes hadn’t seemed to spark anything, and after the loss to the Blue Jackets, Williams suggested that scoring would have to start with hard work before skill took over. Then, the floodgates would hopefully open.
The Capitals seemed to solve their scoring woes in one dominant first period. Brett Connolly was called for cross-checking 6:48 into the game, and the penalty turned out to be a blessing for Washington. The Capitals had their best scoring chances when shorthanded against Columbus on Tuesday night, and against the Penguins, they capitalized.
Jay Beagle broke free for a breakaway, and Penguins goaltender Matt Murray split and sprawled to save the shot. But Oshie had trailed Beagle down the ice, and he flipped in the rebound to lift the Capitals to a 1-0 lead. That’s the second shorthanded goal Washington has scored in its past four games after the team had two all of last season, and both goals have been a combination of Oshie with Beagle.
The two started killing penalties together after the shorthanded unit got off to an underwhelming start to the year. Oshie already plays a lot at even strength, and he’s on the top power-play unit, so adding a heavier penalty-killing load to his responsibilities wasn’t ideal, but his success there was hard to deny.
The Penguins seemed to tie it with 4:30 left in the period. A puck deflected off Evgeny Kuznetsov, and Holtby made great save by reaching back with stick to stop the puck short of goal line. Evgeni Malkin then crashed the net, attempting to push the rebound past Holtby. It went in, and the Penguins briefly celebrated, but a video review showed the puck was kicked in and the goal was disallowed.
The Capitals seized the momentum. Two minutes later, Backstrom won a faceoff in the defensive zone, and upon entering the offensive zone, he used Penguins defenseman Brian Dumoulin as a screen, ripping a wrister past Murray for second goal in two games.
In the final minute of the period, a kerfuffle between Karl Alzner and Malkin broke up after Alzner made contact with Murray on a shot attempt. As the two bear-hugged, Malkin accidentally knocked Murray’s mask off and then his wayward stick smacked Murray in the face. Malkin was assessed an additional roughing minor, and Fleury had to replace Murray.
On the ensuing four-on-three power play, the first shot against Fleury was a slap shot by Carlson, and Oshie swatted in the rebound, lifting the Capitals to a 3-0 lead at first intermission. The power play had been in a drought entering the game, having scored just one goal in its past 19 opportunities. The man-advantage got plenty of practice on Wednesday night, as the Penguins were assessed 10 penalties.
That marked the first time this season the Capitals have scored that many goals in the first period. Orlov’s tally made it 4-0 through two periods, then the floodgates reopened in the third, a statement made.