Sidney Crosby had a goal and an assist and the Pittsburgh Penguins halted the Washington Capitals five-game winning streak as the Metro Division rivals played a low-scoring 2-1 game. The game also marked the end of Alexander Ovechkin’s 14-game point streak despite six shots on goal for the Russian Rocket.
It was the 3rd meeting of the year and with the loss, the Caps are 1-1-1 against the Penguins so far and will remain in first in the Metro division with the Penguins continuing to slowly get back in the race moving into a tie for third with the New York Islanders with the win.
The two teams are never at a loss for intense games and this was no exception. Just under two minutes into the frame, the gloves were off as Tom Wilson and Jamie Oleksiak decided to get the game started with a bang. And a bang it was as the much heralded Wilson knocked out Oleksiak in short time with a right-hand shot that dropped the Pens defenseman.
fisticuffs early pic.twitter.com/tS4vWjVDWF
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) December 20, 2018
Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin continuing the rivalry with some exchanges from the bench pic.twitter.com/A8n19v5loy
— Brady Trettenero (@BradyTrett) December 20, 2018
Kris Letang and Ovechkin would go to the box together for roughing as the teams continued to play physical combining for 47 hits over the game. Ovechkin would have 5 himself.
After a scoreless first period, Lars Eller would give the Capitals the 1-0 lead at 6:38 off the second period with his 5th after he took a nice touch pass from Tom Wilson to go in alone and beat Pens starter Matt Murray.
Wilson ...... touch passing now too 😠#AllCaps pic.twitter.com/06rCuNi5VN
— Marcus Boutilier (@SportMajor) December 20, 2018
With the teams looking like they would head to the third tied up it was the Pens Bryan Rust that had other plans. After Caps defenseman Matt Niskanen would fail to clear the puck off the boards the Pens would pick up the turnover and when the puck came into the crease as many as seven players were there including Rust who would jab a loose puck over the fallen Holtby. The goal would come with just 1:02 left in the period.
The third would have no scoring and the while the Caps would take another penalty they were able to kill it off but could not connect on their own power play chance to tie the game. Ovechkin had two great chances to extend his point-streak but just couldn’t beat Murray. The best chance was negated by Pettersson when he made a great play to clear the puck from going past the goal line after Lars Eller had beaten the goalie through the arm and leg.
Darn you Pettersson.... pic.twitter.com/XStKVAF3Fh
— Marcus Boutilier (@SportMajor) December 20, 2018
The Caps PP would end up going 0-5 in what you could consider the main reason for leaving with the loss in my mind. Since Dec. 1, the Capitals power play has just four power-play goals in 26 opportunities after starting the first couple months on fire. They now sit 5th in the NHL with a 25% rate.
The Capitals need to tighten up next game as they committed 15 turnovers in last night’s affair.
The Caps are off until Friday when they will host Buffalo for a date with the Sabres for the second time in a week, then play the second end of a back-to-back on Saturday in Ottawa in their last games before the Christmas break.
Capital Gain:
Kuznetsov’s point streak was stopped at 8 tonight. He has 15 shots his last 3 games. Andre Burakovsky was the healthy scratch for 4th game in a row.