Penguins shut out Capitals in Game 7
WASHINGTON — Marc-Andre 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-the-clock performance to shut out the Washington 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 captain 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 on Braden Holtby, and Fleury shut the door.
It was as complete a game as Pittsburgh has had through two rounds, even though it was without injured defenseman Trevor Daley and winger Carl Hagelin. Crosby looked like himself again in his third game back from a concussion, and the rest of the team followed.
“They just always find a way to respond the right way to any of the challenges or the adversities that this league throws at us, and