Evgeni Malkin stole the puck from Anthony Mantha for a breakaway and scored with 1:20 left in regulation Saturday as the Pittsburgh Penguins recovered from blowing a three-goal lead to top the visiting Washington Capitals 4-3. Ryan Poehling, Chad Ruhwedel and Jake Guentzel also scored for the Penguins (37-27-10, 82 points), who moved to within a point of the New York Islanders for the top Eastern Conference wild-card spot.
The Pittsburgh Penguins forward hosted Ovechkin and Washington Capitals teammates Evgeny Kuznetsov, Alexander Alexeyev and Aliaksei Protas for dinner at his house the night before their matchup at PPG Paints Arena on Saturday. Malkin's son, Nikita, also joined the crew at the dinner table.
With their long-shot playoff hopes on the line, the Washington Capitals returned to the road and faced off against the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Caps, four points behind Pittsburgh in the Eastern Conference standings, badly needed a win to do anything but extinguish their postseason hopes, but they were soundly out-classed by a final score of 4-3 in the third and final matchup between the two Metropolitan division rivals. Washington came out with a sense of urgency in the game's opening minutes, recording the first three shots of the contest in under the first minute of play. At 15:12 left in the first, Nicolas Aubé-Kubel was ridden down while playing defense but tagged for a holding call, but Washington continued their hot streak on the penalty kill and held the Penguins to just one shot on the man advantage.
No | Player | Pos |
---|---|---|
27 | D | |
96 | RW | |
19 | C | |
28 | RW | |
74 | D | |
26 | C | |
42 | D | |
62 | LW | |
52 | D | |
3 | D | |
35 | G | |
92 | C | |
79 | G | |
39 | RW | |
15 | LW | |
77 | RW | |
8 | LW | |
59 | C | |
38 | D | |
73 | LW | |
16 | C | |
17 | C | |
43 | RW | |
57 | D |