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Penguins Overcome Dirty Play To Win Game 2

May 1, 2016, 1:56 PM ET [273 Comments]
Ryan Wilson
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The Pittsburgh Penguins rebounded well from their Game 1 loss to the Washington Capitals. Game 2 saw the Penguins control the flow of most of the game.

Goaltending remained great for Washington but they were unable to beat Matt Murray more than once and that makes things tough to win playoff games.




Even strength belonged to the Penguins and that has been their bread and butter since Mike Sullivan took over the head coaching job.

Nick Bonino was involved offensively yet again. He saved his best hockey for the end of the year. He now has eight points in seven playoff games. Here was his feed to Carl Hagelin




Remember all that talk about Evgeni Malkin upsetting team "chemsitry"? Yeah...




He had the primary assist on the Penguins game winning goal which was a beautiful tip by Eric Fehr.




Kris Letang continues to be a beast for the team. He played 25:34 of just even-strength time last night. Overall he played 35:22. Letang is used to playing big minutes but these elevated minutes were the product of Olli Maatta not being able to play. Former Penguin Brooks Orpik delivered a head shot to the Finnish defender early on in the game and Maatta was unable to return.






This is the second consecutive game where the Penguins did not receive a five minute power play on an obvious call. That's kind of a big deal.

Orpik has a hearing with the league because of the hit. It remains to be seen who Washington would put in the lineup if Orpik misses some time. If it is Mike Weber the Penguins forwards will feast on him. Pittsburgh will more than likely use Justin Schultz as Olli Maatta's replacement.

Matt Murray stopped 23 out of 24 shots. His save percentages from each game in the playoffs have been .941, 1.000, .927, .886, .958. They are getting what they need out of the goaltending position and then some.

After going on a run of five points in three games to close out the Rangers series Sidney Crosby has been shutout against the Capitals to this point. I don't expect that to be a trend that continues much longer.

Game 3 will be in Pittsburgh Monday night. Expect more great hockey.

Thanks for reading!
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