Pittsburgh Penguins Triumph in Game 4 Overtime Win

Patric Hornqvist scored the overtime winner in Pittsburgh, sending the Penguins back to Washington with a 3-1 grip on the series.

The injury reports for both teams are getting longer, and so are the suspension lists. It’s obviously a contentious series, and that makes for some great hockey, but boy oh boy, does it stress me out.

Olli Maatta, Kris Letang, and Eric Fehr were all out of the lineup for the Pittsburgh Penguins tonight while Justin Schultz and Bryan Rust were back in. Brooks Orpik and Nate Schmidt were missing from the Washington Capitals‘ bench while Mike Weber and Marcus Johansson remained in.

I’m going to admit right off the bat that I spent the first period of tonight’s game making cookies for a class, so I didn’t see that much of it. What I did see, though, was par for the course in this series so far.

The Pens got off to a bit of a slow start as the Capitals’ fourth line picked up the first goal of the evening. Jay Beagle flipped the puck past Matt Murray to give the visitors an early lead. Ben Lovejoy, who was defending him, stood on the brakes a little bit and allowed Beagle to get an extra step on him, just enough for the Cap to launch the puck bardown.

Soon the resilient Pens came back to tie it up around midway through the period. At first glance the goal was awarded to Trevor Daley, who shot the puck back from near the blue line and bounced it off a few Capitals like it was a game of pinball. The goal was then changed to be Sidney Crosby‘s, because it looked like he picked up the rebound and snuck it past Holtby, but after the end of the first period it was changed back to Daley.

I’m sure neither player is too concerned with that, though. A goal’s a goal.

The Caps soon got the first powerplay of the game as Carl Hagelin threw a “late” hit on TJ Oshie. Hagelin was slapped with a two-minute interference penalty, just like Kris Letang in the game before and Brooks Orpik in the game before that. Luckily, his hit was nowhere near as bad as either of theirs, and shouldn’t merit a suspension like both Letang and Orpik’s.

The Pens killed it off and almost immediately got a powerplay. Hagelin absolutely blew by Matt Niskanen on his way to the net, and Niskanen hooked him in a desperation attempt to slow him down. Dmitry Orlov subsequently launched Hagelin at Holtby and both of them went down awkwardly, but only the hook was deemed a penalty. 

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Before the two minutes had finished, Patric Hornqvist took a penalty of his own for tripping and made it a four-on-four. With six seconds left in that, Jason Chimera tripped Sidney Crosby and made things four-on-three very briefly.

There were extracurricular activities aplenty after nearly every whistle. Just after the final whistle of the first period, Daley and John Carlson almost got into it. The referees broke it up immediately, but tempers were flaring from the start.

As expected, of course.

The Penguins’ hot fourth line got their team off to a strong start in the second period. Matt Cullen won a faceoff at center ice, sending the puck back to young Oskar Sundqvist, who started a flawless sequence of passing to get the puck back to Cullen. Cullen proceeded to outskate Nicklas Backstrom and put the puck five-hole.

Lovejoy took a hooking penalty a few minutes later and gave the Capitals a chance to get their first shot of the period. While they managed that much, TJ Oshie cross-checked Daley and created another four-on-four situation.

Despite the sheer number of four-on-fours in this game, it’s hard to believe that the first set of coincidental minors didn’t come until nearly the end of the second period. Ian Cole valiantly tried to defend Murray against Tom Wilson, and both were rewarded with roughing penalties.

The Pens matched the Caps almost hit for hit, which is pretty unexpected when you consider how little the Penguins’ game focuses on that aspect. If they can continue to play that hard-hitting style without sacrificing the speed or scoring capabilities that define their game, it will be a pleasant surprise.

Seriously, look how evenly matched things were following the second period. This is a matchup that might easily produce the best hockey throughout the whole playoff stretch.

As far as the scoring action goes, the goalies stood strong throughout the third. Murray made some stupendous saves while Holtby did the same down the ice.

Alex Ovechkin lumberjack-chopped Crosby’s hand at one point and the Pittsburgh captain headed to the locker room following the slash. He took his feelings against Ovechkin out on the poor tunnel wall:

Luckily, he returned to the bench shortly after being examined by the trainer.

Other players stepped up during the absences of their star players. Daley bore the brunt of the burden of Letang’s suspension; he played nearly 30 minutes. Cullen had another great chance while Crosby was getting checked out, barely missing the net to ping a rebound of the crossbar.

The Penguins got a final powerplay chance late in the third period as Karl Alzner hauled down Crosby. This opportunity was crucial, but the Caps had killed 22 straight penalties up to this point.

Make that 23.

Relatedly, the Penguins are now 0-14 on powerplay chances this series. Their powerplay was hot against the Rangers, but it’s a big credit to the Caps that they’ve been able to shut the Pens’ top units down this way.

Sixty minutes of regulation hockey wouldn’t do it, and the game headed to overtime for the second time in this series. The Pens have lost eight consecutive overtime games in the playoffs before tonight.

Good news: that streak was soon to be broken. Patric Hornqvist scored the game winner just moments into overtime! That goal would send the Penguins to Washington with a dangerous 3-1 series lead.

Next: Pittsburgh Penguins' Letang Suspended One Game

Some immediate postgame thoughts: Murray was outstanding again. Derrick Pouliot is still struggling a bit, but that’s understandable for a kid who’s played in exactly two playoff games and has been the odd man out of the lineup for a while.

And most importantly, the Pens played some of their weakest hockey in months in these last two games. They also had to work around losing their top two defensemen tonight. In the end, they pulled out two gritty wins and put the Caps in a stranglehold.