Kris Letang Gives Pens New Life in OT

When most of us got out of bed Wednesday morning, we probably didn't expect to see Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Kris Letang in the lineup for the Penguins that night, not after the way he left the ice in obvious pain during Game 2 in Washington. But whatever vitamins they're feeding the players in Pittsburgh, they worked on Letang.

He gutted out three-plus periods before scoring the game-winning goal in overtime to give the Penguins a needed win in Game 3 of their second round series with the Caps, cutting Washington's series lead to 2-1.

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Of course, Letang didn't do it alone. Earlier in the day over at The Sporting Blog, I wrote, along with a multitude of others, that Pittsburgh needed to do better at the faceoff circle, get more secondary scoring and find a way to revive center Evgeni Malkin, a player who looked as if he had been sleepwalking through the opening two games of the series in Washington. As it turned out, they got all three of those elements in their most complete performance of the series.

The scoring got started with a bang just 1:23 into the first period when Washington's Alex Ovechkin added yet another clip to his burgeoning career highlight reel. Defenseman Mike Green got the play started when he dumped the puck into the Pittsburgh zone from center ice along the right wing boards. Pittsburgh goalie Marc-Andre Fleury went behind the net to retrieve the puck, but it took a wicked bounce off the end boards and straight back into the slot. To add insult to injury, Fleury lost his stick on the play and could only watch as Ovechkin pounced on the puck and slid it into an open net for a 1-0 Washington lead.

Pittsburgh didn't get on the board until 9:29 of the second period when Ruslan Fedotenko cashed in to tie the score at 1-1, satisfying the need for secondary scoring. The period ended with the score tied, but it wasn't for lack of trying on the part of the Penguins. Over the course of the second period, the Penguins threw just about everything they had at the Capitals, but the home team just couldn't put anything past rookie goalie Simeon Varlamov. For the period, Pittsburgh outshot Washington, 15-4, but didn't have anything to show for it other than Fedotenko's goal.

The third period provided more of the same as Pittsburgh continued its dominance offensively, while Washington and its rookie goalie were struggling to keep them off the scoreboard. Leading the charge for the Penguins was Malkin. Roundly criticized after lackluster performances in Games 1 and 2, Malkin played hockey like a man possessed, knifing into the Caps' zone on the breakout with relative ease, and creating scoring chances for his teammates when he wasn't developing them all on his own. For most of the night, the ice seemed tilted against the Caps, forcing them to commit multiple and sending Pittsburgh to the power play seven times.

Time after time Varlamov -- who would finish the night with 39 saves -- denied Malkin and his teammates, but the rookie ran out of luck with less than five minutes to go and Pittsburgh back on the power play. After being frustrated for most of the period, Malkin finally broke through, sending a wrist shot through a screen that evaded Varlamov and found the back of the net.

But after taking most of the second and third period off, Washington found a way to extend the game. With Pascal Dupuis in the box for interference, Washington went on the power play and tied it up as Nicklas Backstrom banked the puck off of Fleury for the tying goal with just 1:50 left in regulation.

The overtime session featured plenty of action up and down the ice sheet, but it was a set play that gave Pittsburgh the win at 11:23. It was then that Sidney Crosby, who had been practicing taking draws earlier in the day, won one of those all-important faceoffs back to Mark Eaton. He shuffled the puck over to Letang, who let go of a shot through traffic that beat Varlamov and sent the fans home happy.