Penguins beat Capitals in frantic overtime battle
Share this post:
It took a while for Kasperi Kapanen to finally join the Penguins.
A tidy 2,399 days to be precise.
That’s how long it was between the Penguins selecting the skilled winger as their first-round pick at the 2014 draft and him actually dressing for them in a game of consequence.
It didn’t take him long to find out how frantic and heated a game against the rival Capitals can get.
An overtime goal by forward Sidney Crosby gave the Penguins a 5-4 win at PPG Paints Arena on Tuesday. But the victory came at a price as defensemen Marcus Pettersson and Juuso Riikola each left with undisclosed ailments.
Pettersson was injured at 3:21 of the second period after a violent hit by Capitals forward T.J. Oshie while Riikola did not return to the ice following the second period.
Despite playing with only four blueliners for the third period and overtime, the Penguins were able to complete the comeback and even their record at 2-2-0.
“The four (defensemen) that we played with in the third period and overtime, I thought they did a terrific job hanging in there and competing,” coach Mike Sullivan said via video conference. “That’s not an easy task when you’re down to that few defensemen in a hard-fought game like tonight was.”
The start of the contest was hardly ideal for the Penguins as the Capitals took a lead 4:55 into regulation thanks to forward Lars Eller getting his first goal of the season.
Kapanen helped the Penguins respond at the 16:52 mark. Racing into the offensive zone, he ripped a wrister from the right circle that goaltender Vitek Vanecek initially stopped. On the ensuing rebound, forwards Teddy Blueger and Colton Sceviour crashed in and Sceviour jammed in his second goal of the season. Kapanen recorded an assist on the score.
“I just tried to use my speed and get a shot on net,” Kapanen said. “Colton and Teddy did a good job of crashing the net.”
The Capitals wasted little time in reclaiming a lead. To be precise, they wasted six seconds. Off the ensuing faceoff, Capitals forward Tom Wilson fired a pedestrian wrister from the right circle that glanced off of DeSmith’s right shoulder and bounced into the cage.
Another goal by Wilson during a botched line change by the Penguins made it 3-1 at 19:43 of the first.
DeSmith helped chip away at the early deficit by getting involved in the offense during the second. During a five-on-three Penguins power-play, DeSmith took advantage of a long line change for the short-handed Capitals with the bench on the far end of the ice. Collecting a dump in, he alertly played it up the left wing for forward Bryan Rust. After some precise passing, forward Jake Guentzel collected his first goal of the season at the 5:45 mark.
After Capitals forward Evgeny Kuznetsov scored his first goal at 8:16 of the second, DeSmith used his stick again to contribute on special teams.
Facing a five-on-three power play by the Capitals, DeSmith caught a dump-in from the neutral zone, placed it on the ice and flung it to the red line, where forward Teddy Blueger corralled it. Gliding into the offensive zone, Blueger slipped a backhander through Vanecek’s five hole for his first goal and only the third five-on-three short-handed score in franchise history.
“I was just trying to get it down the ice,” DeSmith said. “And Teddy was in the right place and the right time. That just worked out great. It was very lucky, but I’ll take it.”
Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin broke out of a slump with a power-play goal from the right circle at 17:15 of the second — his first this season — to tie the game.
In overtime, Crosby cleaned up a rebound for his third goal at the 1:11 mark.
DeSmith finished with 22 saves in the victory.
“It wasn’t pretty by any stretch,” Sullivan said. “We’re well aware of that. We’ve got to get a whole lot better in a lot of areas. But we found a way.”