The Pittsburgh Penguins eliminated the Washington Capitals for the second straight year, knocking out the Presidents' Trophy winners with a 2-0 road win in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals. Bryan Rust gave the defending Stanley Cup champions the lead with a goal in the second period and Patric Hornqvist doubled the Penguins' lead with a third period tally.
The Capitals came out flying in the first five minutes, but were largely neutralized thereafter as Marc-Andre Fleury made 29 saves to post the third Game 7 road win of his career. The Penguins move on to the Eastern Conference finals to face the Ottawa Senators. Game 1 is Saturday night in Pittsburgh.
Capitals come out flying, unable to score
The Capitals appeared to carry their momentum over from Games 5 and 6, taking four shots in the first 2:18, Fleury stopping the home team's early barrage.
The next six shots belonged to Pittsburgh as they were able to settle the game down thanks to the brilliance of their goaltender.
"We're not in this position moving on if he doesn't play the way he did," said Penguins captain Sidney Crosby. "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."
Penguins score first off of Capitals mistakes
Playing without defenseman Trevor Daley and winger Carl Hagelin, Pittsburgh got contributions from everybody and their hard work was rewarded 8:49 into the second period.
Kevin Shattenkirk and Matt Niskanen had trouble clearing the puck out of their own zone and Rust, whose two goals in Game 7 of last year's Eastern Conference Finals sent the Penguins to the Stanley Cup Finals, pounced after a sweet cross-ice feed from Jake Guentzel. Crosby picked up an assist, as well.
Defending champions dominate third period
The Penguins were in no mood to let up and they outshot the Capitals 7-1 to begin the third period, reducing Washington to a dump-and-chase team, effectively neutralizing an offense that had scored nine goals in the previous two games.
The lead was doubled 4:14 into the final period when Shattenkirk and Alex Ovechkin turned the puck over in their own zone, Hornqvist beating Capitals goalie Braden Holtby glove side with a backhand shot.
Washington could muster little after that as the Penguins improved to 4-0 all-time against the Capitals in Game 7's and 6-0 on the road in deciding games.
Postgame reaction
Ovechkin, now 3-7 in his career in Game 7 is keenly aware of how much the missed chances cost the Capitals: "Without goals, you can't win the game," said the Washington captain. "Plenty of chance to score. Just didn't do it. Made a couple mistakes, and it cost us."
Washington has still never advanced to the conference finals in the Ovechkin era as they fell to 0-7 in second round series.
Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan praised his team for fighting through adversity: "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 they did it again tonight".
"I think these guys are at their best when the stakes are high. ... I thought that was the closest thing to the Penguins identity that we've seen in the playoffs so far."
Penguins goalie praised for his efforts
Fleury is now halfway to his third Stanley Cup championship, only getting the chance to start after Matt Murray injured himself in warmups of the opening game of the playoffs. His teammates recognize the journey he has gone through to get here.
"I think that we're kidding ourselves if we don't give Flower an awful lot of credit," center Matt Cullen said. "He stole us more than one game this series and he kept us in a lot of others".
"We give him a lot of credit, and we're all so happy for him and proud of him. You can't ask for a better teammate than Flower with what he's gone through the last couple years and to step up the way he has."
