Guentzel, Pens even up Capitals
Jake Guentzel scored twice to push his playoff total to a league-leading 10, Matt Murray stopped 20 shots and the Penguins beat the Washington Capitals, 3-1, in Game 4 to even their tense Eastern Conference semifinal last night in Pittsburgh.
Evgeni Malkin added his fourth goal of the playoffs for Pittsburgh as the twotime defending Stanley Cup champions pushed back following a chaotic Game 3 that included an illegal hit by Washington forward Tom Wilson that led to a three-game suspension.
T.J. Oshie scored for the Capitals, but Washington struggled to find much operating room. Alex Ovechkin failed to register a shot on goal for just the third time in 107 career playoff games. Braden Holtby finished with 21 saves but couldn’t quite get a handle on Malkin’s belly-flop shot attempt late in the second period that put Pittsburgh in front to stay.
Game 5 is tomorrow night in Washington.
The Capitals grabbed brief control of the series amid all of the Wilson-led Game 3 chippiness when Ovechkin baseball-batted home the winning goal with 1:07 to play. True playoff momentum for Washington, however, has been problematic for decades. The franchise is 6-11 in series in which it led 2-1 after three games, the worst mark in NHL history.
Given a chance to push Pittsburgh to the brink of elimination, Washington instead struggled to generate much pressure outside of the power play. Devante Smith-Pelly replaced Wilson on the top line with Ovechkin and Evgeny Kuznetsov, but Pittsburgh kept the clamps on, and Murray, who admitted he was “shaky” in Game 3, looked far steadier this time around.
Wilson’s absence brought a sense of normalcy. The vitriol calmed a bit, replaced by the taut intensity that’s come to define one of the NHL’s marquee rivalries.
Elsewhere in the NHL — Columbus Blue Jackets defensemen Zach Werenski had surgery on a shoulder injury that bothered him since early last season. The team says full recovery is expected to take 5-6 months. Werenski scored a franchise-record 16 goals this season . . . .
The Carolina Hurricanes acquired left winger Jordan Martinook from the Arizona Coyotes for center Marcus Kruger. Martinook had six goals and nine assists in 81 games. Kruger had one goal and five assists.