Kessel sparks Pens, Holtby gets hook
WASHINGTON— Phil Kessel scored twice, Sidney Crosby set up two more goals and the Pittsburgh Penguins chased Braden Holtby on the way to a 6-2 victory over the Capitals in Game 2 Saturday night that gave them a commanding 2-0 lead in their second-round series.
Marc-Andre Fleury was brilliant again in net, stopping 34 of the 36 shots he faced for Pittsburgh, which also got goals by Matt Cullen, Jake Guentzel and Evgeni Malkin. The Penguins scored three goals on 14 shots on Holtby, who was pulled in favour of Philipp Grubauer after the second period.
Grubauer didn’t fare much better, allowing two goals on nine shots. Matt Niskanen and Nicklas Back- strom scored for the Capitals, who outshot the Penguins 36-23 but still face an uphill task of trying to become just the 19th team to win a series after losing the first two games at home.
Guentzel added an empty-net goal to seal it for the Penguins, his playoffbest seventh.
Pittsburgh won Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinal, 3-2 on Thursday.
Holtby won the Vezina as the NHL’s top goaltender last year and is one of three finalists again this season. In these playoffs, Holtby has a .911 save percentage and 2.62 goals-against average.
Holtby tied for the league lead with 42 wins for the Presidents’ Trophywinning Capitals this season, becoming only the third goaltender in NHL history to record at least 40 in three consecutive years. He ranked second with a 2.07 GAA and fourth with a .925 save percentage.
Grubauer had 13 wins and a 2.04 GAA as the primary backup.