Capitals 4, Penguins 3

Bad loss for the Pens. They jumped out to an early advantage, leading 3-0 early in the second. The Caps started to chip away, and before you could say "badly outshot", they were losing the game.

The Pens sat back too early and weren't able to ramp it up when they needed to.

Someone really needs to kill Ovechkin. He's turning into a real pecker.

First period:

Just 30 seconds into the game, Crosby decides to demonstrate that he's still better than O-Face by taking a puck through two defensemen and nearly beating Theodore.

Ovechkin quickly got back to his man-crush on Malkin by trying to kill him again. I'd say that Alex should let sleeping dogs lie, but Malkin hasn't shown very much yet this year.

I no sooner wrote that than Malkin took a bad hooking penalty. Blech.

Nothing doing on the early power plays for each team. The Caps had some decent chances. The Pens? Not so much.

Early on, Bissonnette is trying to use his size and dish out some punishment on the forecheck. Not much luck catching anyone so far, but he should keep trying.

Wow - Godard gets no respect. He was called for icing when he deflected the puck from just behind the red line. Usually on those calls, if the player can even see the red line, they let it go.

The Pens went back on the power play. Malkin blasted a shot that deflected off of the end boards right to Goligoski. Alex tried to settle the puck, fanned on an attempted shot and then whipped it at the net from a bad angle. It somehow found it's way behind Theodore. 1-0 Pens.

Pens back on the power play to close out the first period. Sure would be nice to get two PP goals in the first...

Ask and ye shall receive. Malkin ripped a shot off of Jurcina that found it's way behind Theodore. 2-0 Pens.

Great first period. Fleury made a few big saves and the Pens got some timely scoring on the power play.

Second period:

The Pens start the second period on the power play, thanks to the lack of focus on the part of the Caps - they took a Too Many Men penalty with under a minute left in the first. Not smart.

The Caps, trying to kill the penalty, flip the puck over the boards. Their heads really aren't in this so far tonight. Five on three for the Pens. If they can score here, it's a knockout punch.

Malkin shot the puck to the net and the Pens crashed the net. Satan finished things off. 3-0 Pens.

Godard took a dumb slashing penalty. I'm not sure that gets called if the Pens hadn't had 37 power play chances in a row.

Steigy did his best to deliver the kiss of death by letting us know the Pens have killed 11 straight penalties.

Nothing can seem to hurt the Pens right now, and they killed the penalty pretty easily.

The Pens couldn't clear the puck - Satan didn't get it out and the Caps jumped on it. 3-1 Pens.

Paul Bissonnette decided things were not going to continue in a sloppy fashion. He and former Penguin Matt Bradley squared off, and Bissonnette absolutely destroyed Bradley. Matt was bloody and dazed. Total domination by Paul.

Ovechkin was still trying to kill Malkin with several attempted hits on Geno. Someone needs to catch O-Face with his head down and send him in to the middle of next week.

Malkin took a boarding penalty when he hit Semin. Ovechkin immediately skated over to Malkin - you thought he was going to drop the gloves, but someone slowed down O-Face (wisely). Big PK for the Pens.

No problem on the PK. Penalty over, no dice for the Caps.

Gill got between Crosby and Semin and somehow took the only penalty. Errey volunteered that it was an even-up call. Nice job, Clueless Zebras.

Green hooked Letang when Kris was trying to clear the zone, and to their credit, the refs actually made the call. Way to go, refs!

The Pens had a backside power play after the Gill penalty expired.

O-Face just tried to kill Malkin... again. Will someone from the Pens step up and knock O-Face on his butt? He's taking runs at Malkin, and it's actually getting kind of cheap. Respect-o-meter is dropping, O-Face...

Third period:

Probably important to slog things up a bit early in the third. The Pens can't let the Caps get any early momentum. A goal would be nice, but just shutting down the Caps defensively would be good.

Annnndddd... the Pens lost a defensive zone faceoff and Semin ripped a wrister past Fleury. 3-2 Pens.

Slog slog slog... not much happening as the midway point of the third period approached.

UNTIL the Caps break in 3-on-2 and have a nice tic-tac-toe passing play with Nylander finishing things off. 3-3 tie.

Fedo lost his stick, and the next 90 seconds looked like a Caps power play. The Pens have lost it, and the Caps have it right now. The Pens have to weather the storm.

Kennedy and Talbot ignite a bit of fire under the Penguins with some hustle. Malkin gets on the ice and the Pens keep it in the offensive zone for awhile. That's a good start, but they can't be content to keep it on the outside - they need shots.

Gill got hit in the face with a stick with no call. The Caps took the puck down on a 2-on-1 with Gordon ripping the puck over Fleury. 4-3 Caps.

The last four minutes started to tick away quickly with continuous play. Fleury was off and the Pens were trying to get things setup. Ovechkin made the really selfish play of shooting for the open net from his own zone, giving the Pens an offensive zone faceoff. The Pens couldn't make them pay for that.