Penguins-Capitals postgame

Thursday, 07 February 2013 23:00

Written by Dave Molinari

Final score: Penguins 5, Capitals 2.

Why it matters: The Penguins (8-3) ran off their fifth consecutive victory and moved past Boston to take over first place in the Eastern Conference, although the Bruins have two games in hand.

In a nutshell: Mike Ribeiro gave Washington a 1-0 lead at 4:12 of the first period, but the Penguins blew the game open with goals by Evgeni Malkin, Pascal Dupuis, James Neal, Matt Cooke and Sidney Crosby in the second. Three of those goals came on the power play even though Kris Letang, who plays the point on the No. 1 unit, missed the game with an undisclosed injury. It was the Penguins' most impressive roll of the season, and the power-play goal Alex Ovechkin scored for Washington in the third period did nothing but a little superficial damage to goalie Marc-Andre Fleury's personal stats.

Turning point: Malkin's goal, on a wicked wrist shot from below the left dot at 6:59 of the second, not only tied the game and got the Penguins' power play rolling, but seemed to puncture the Capitals' fragile confidence. The game effectively was over by the time Washington regained its equilibrium.

Under the radar: Rookie defenseman Robert Bortuzzo had another solid performance, logging nearly 17 minutes of ice time and tying for the team lead with three hits. He isn't very flashy, but for a rookie, he's awfully reliable and responsible.

The brightest star: Malkin nudged past Crosby for this distinction, if only because the shot on which he scored was so exceptional. "That first goal was as good of a shot as I think you're going to see," coach Dan Bylsma said. "A pretty impressive shot." It's also worth noting that he won 0 of 16 faceoffs.

The last word: Crosby, on the Penguins' second-period rampage: "That doesn't happen every night,. Especially to be at home, to be putting goals in like that and capitalizing, it's a lot of fun. You could feel the energy in the building, and guys were really working off of that. Every line was hopping over there expecting to create a chance and make something happen. It was nice to see everyone get rewarded like that."