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Capitals find the end zone on the road in huge divisional victory: Capitals beat Penguins 6-3

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The Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins played the latest installment of their forever friendship on Saturday. Could the Caps continue their traveling success as the best road team in the league?

Bryan Rust jammed a loose puck home within the first minute to give Pittsburgh an early lead. Marcus Johansson responded only seconds later to tie the game. Dmitry Orlov rocketed the Caps into the lead with a big slapper on the rush. Jeff Carter brought things level again late in the first and Brian Boyle gave the Pens their lead back shortly after.

Alex Ovechkin struck with the Caps on a five-on-three advantage with a trademark one-timer. Tom Wilson gave the Caps a late lead with a bullet of a wrister on an odd-man rush. Evgeny Kuznetsov empty netter. Martin Fehervary empty netter.

Capitals beat Penguins 6-3!

  • The first period had some good stretches and it had some not-so-good stretches. The main issues came from a handful of brutal turnovers in the defensive zone that turned into two goals from Pittsburgh. One from Alex Ovechkin and the other from Anthony Mantha. Well, I shouldn’t say “main” because the actual “main” issue is the dude that was between the pipes.
  • Ilya Samsonov was absolutely brutal in the first period. He was beaten short side twice with two incredibly leaky goals that should not go in on an NHL goaltender. On Boyle’s goal, I’m not sure he was even covering like 25-percent of the net. He had to play one of these games in this back-to-back but I don’t think Vitek Vanecek will ever be that amateur in net for me to want Samsonov to play much at all as this regular season wraps up.
  • Sidney Crosby should 1000-percent be suspended for his sucker punch on Nic Dowd. There’s nothing to that play other than intent to injure. Obviously, he won’t be suspended or likely even fined because of who he is but he should be.

  • Samsonov did the thing he usually does where he then had a very, very good period after a very, very terrible one. The Pens had 18 scoring chances at five-on-five in the second and the only goal in the frame was scored by the Caps.
  • Dmitry Orlov has a new single-season career-high in goals as he blasted home his eleventh of the season. Got this next tidbit from Tarik. Only Cale Makar, Roman Josi, Victor Hedman, Aaron Ekblad, Alex Pietrangelo, John Carlson, and Devon Toews have more goals from the backend this season than the Capitals’ best defenseman. Good company.
  • Marcus Johansson and Johan Larsson recorded their first points as Capitals players since coming over at the Trade Deadline. Early reports on both players for me personally…I don’t see what they exactly offer that the Caps didn’t already have in younger players. Depth and all I guess though.
  • Alex Ovechkin passed Ron Francis for the fourth-most goaltenders scored on in NHL history when he beat Tristan Jarry for the first time in this game for career goal number 774. Ovi struck with his signature one-timer as the Caps were on an extended five-on-three advantage.

  • Just a really awesome third period. Really fun to watch and really well played by the Caps. No complaints about it. Samsonov really had a fantastic final two periods. I have to give him credit after that first bullet about him.
  • Tom Wilson legally hit Jake Guentzel, asked Guentzel if he was crying or not on the bench after he complained to the officials, and then went out and sniped the Caps into a lead on his next shift. That’s some chad behavior. This jersey is probably at fault.
  • My favorite part of the broadcast was when they had a rules analyst come on and say a poke check was a poke check and not a trip after seeing four different replays of the player not even touching the puck. Can I get paid to do that?

The Caps will get right back to it tomorrow afternoon as they host the Boston Bruins at Capital One Arena.

Screenshot via ABC

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