Penguins win Game 7 in East
Pittsburgh goes to East finals as Washington fails to get past the second round again.
Fleury records the 2-0 shutout as Washington fails to get past the second round again.
PITTSBURGH 2 WASHINGTON 0
WASHINGTON — MarcAndre Fleury thanked his stick and flashed a smile so wide it could be seen through his mask.
This was vintage Fleury, and he has the Pittsburgh Penguins one step closer to another Stanley Cup.
Fleury stopped all 29 shots in a turn-back-theclock performance to shut out the Washing ton Capitals 2-0 in Game 7 on Wednesday night, sending Pittsburgh to the Eastern Conference finals to face the Ottawa Senators.
This was the Fleury who backstopped the Penguins to the Cup in 2009 and was almost unbeatable early in the second-round series, and his return was all they needed to eliminate the Presidents’ Trophy winners in a meeting of the NHL’s top two teams.
“We’re not in this position moving on if he doesn’t play the way he did,” said Sidney Crosby, who assisted on Bryan Rust’s opening goal. “There were times where they had sustained pressure throughout games, and he made some big saves that allowed us to stay in the game and allowed us to stay patient. He was huge for us all series long.”
Fleury thought it was the Penguins’ best team game of the playoffs, a theory that teammates and coach Mike Sullivan echoed. They were again outshot as they were in every game of the series, this time only 29-28, but Rust and Patric Hornqvist scored and Fleury shut the door.
Washington failed to get beyond the second round for the seventh time in as many chances in the Alex Ovechkin era.
“Without goals, you can’t win the game,” Ovechkin said. “Plenty of chance to score. Just didn’t do it. Made a couple mistakes, and it cost us.”