Feisty Penguins lose game, Metropolitan Division lead to Capitals
WASHINGTON — On Saturday, Evgeni Malkin publicly implored his Pittsburgh Penguins teammates to “fight” in order to emerge from their late-season doldrums.
And sure enough, they did that Sunday. They quarreled, shoved, slashed, facewashed, bickered with and generally vexed anyone in a Washington Capitals jersey at Capital One Center.
In Malkin’s case, he almost fought Capitals defenseman Brenden Dillon at the end of the first period.
The Penguins offered a much improved and more engaged effort than they had shown in recent games but came up short against their bitter rivals in a 5-3 loss.
For the Capitals (38-18-6, 82 points), the victory pushed them ahead of the Penguins (37-18-6, 80 points) for first place in the Metropolitan Division with the trade deadline approaching at 3 p.m. Monday.
For the Penguins, the defeat extended a losing streak to three games, matching a season high in late October.
Regardless, they emerged from this defeat with more optimism than the revulsion they displayed over their efforts in a 4-0 road loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday and a 5-2 setback at home to the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday.
“We have so (many) good players here,” Malkin said following Saturday’s game. “But we need (to) fight.”
That message appeared to be heard.
“It was one of our better games in a while,” coach Mike Sullivan said Sunday. “We had a lot of really good moments in the game. It’s disappointing we didn’t get the result. But … we played a much better hockey game.”
Defenseman Marcus Pettersson said: “We played a lot better. We played hard. We could have played a little bit smarter at times, but I think we played hard.”
That description illustrated Pettersson’s performance pretty well. He had a hand in three goals, two of them being scored by players in red.
Capitals forward Jakub Vrana opened the scoring at 6 minutes, 12 seconds of the first period with his 24th goal. Blowing past Pettersson in the neutral zone, he attacked the net and had a wrister denied by goaltender Matt Murray. Pettersson stumbled in pursuit and crashed into the cage, pushing the rebound into the net.
After the Penguins struck twice in the second period with forward Patric Hornqvist getting his 15th goal at the 14:47 mark and forward Sidney Crosby recording his 13th only 26 seconds later, the Capitals tied the score once again at 1:16 of the third.
Off a neutral zone turnover by Pettersson, Capitals forward Tom Wilson generated a breakaway that resulted in his 20th goal.
“I’ve got to play better,” said Pettersson, who recorded a secondary assist on Crosby’s goal. “A couple of mistakes from me, and it kind of cost us tonight.”
Former Penguins forward Carl Hagelin scored his sixth goal at 4:41 of the third to restore a lead at 3-2. But his ex-linemate Evgeni Malkin scored his 21st goal thanks to a dazzling deke through the legs of all-star Capitals defenseman John Carlson in the left circle at the 8:50 mark.
The Capitals took the lead for good at 10:40 of the third period. After Penguins defensemen Jack Johnson and Kris Letang failed to recover a dump-in behind their cage, Oshie scored his 25th on a goalmouth scramble.
An empty-net score by Hagelin at 19:13 secured victory.
The Penguins’ roster might look different by 3 p.m. Monday if general manager Jim Rutherford sees a transaction he feels can benefit his struggling team.
But his incumbent players profess optimism over their play against the Capitals.
“Probably deserved a better fate tonight,” said Murray, who made 18 saves and blamed himself for the loss as well, particularly with regards to Wilson’s goal. “We played the right way for the most part. We’ve got to keep doing that.”
Seth Rorabaugh is a TribLive reporter covering the Pittsburgh Penguins. A North Huntingdon native, he joined the Trib in 2019 and has covered the Penguins since 2007. He can be reached at srorabaugh@triblive.com.
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