PITTSBURGH -- Thanks to their 5-3 win on Friday night, the Pittsburgh Penguins evened their Eastern Conference semifinal series with Washington at two games apiece, setting the stage for what is, essentially, a brand new, best-of-three series starting Saturday night in Washington. The Penguins overcame another shaky performance by their power play, as well as the loss of defenseman Sergei Gonchar following a hit from Alex Ovechkin midway through the first period to pick up their second consecutive win in the series.
Capitals goaltender Simeon Varlamov had what was, arguably, his worst performance of the postseason, surrendering five goals on 28 shots, including an innocent looking wrist shot off the stick of Ruslan Fedotenko at the 15:25 mark of the first period that seemingly found a hole in the 20-year-old netminder's glove.
"He struggled," said Capitals head coach Bruce Boudreau. "He's human. He hasn't had a bad game. When you look at it, it's his 10th game I think in the playoffs and arguably there were four soft goals out of the five, but he'll bounce back."
Boudreau was then asked if his rookie goaltender would start Game 5 on Saturday. "As far as I'm concerned," said Boudreau. "Yes."
After Washington cut the deficit to 3-2 late in the second period thanks to a Chris Clark goal, the Penguins regained their two-goal advantage early in the third period when Bill Guerin worked a loose puck up the boards, springing Miroslav Satan and Sidney Crosby on a 2-on-1 break, resulting in Crosby's league-leading ninth goal of the postseason.
"They had a lot of them [odd man rushes], said Boudreau. "We were down. You've got to take chances when you're down. I thought we had a little mistake on the fist goal with the penalty killing, but the odd-man rushes like the one on Crosby's goal, we were pressing to get a goal and that's whats going to happen."
The Penguins managed to overcome another lackluster performance from their power play, going 1-for-6 with the man advantage, while also allowing their second shorthanded goal of the postseason. The potential loss of Gonchar, who scored the only power play goal in the game prior to his exit, only further weakens a unit that has struggled to consistently put the puck in the net for much of the season.
While Pittsburgh continued to struggle with the man advantage, its 5-on-5 play was stellar, as the Penguins received goals from five different players, including Bill Guerin and Max Talbot. For Guerin, it was his first goal since scoring the overtime winner in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinal series against Philadelphia, while Talbot's goal helped clinch the victory late in the third period.
"It was good to see a number of guys contribute on the score sheet again tonight," said Bylsma. "We need that."
Aside from being highly entertaining and extremely physical, this series has been, through four games, relatively predictable, as it's followed a steady script throughout.
1) The home team has won every game. Seeing as how the Capitals have home-ice advantage, this seems to be a strong advantage. The Penguins need to find a way to get a win in Washington at least once.
2) The team to score the first goal has lost every game. Nicklas Backstrom gave Washington a 1-0 lead just 36 seconds into the contest, when he blasted a slap shot behind Pittsburgh goalie Marc-Andre Fleury. The lead was short-lived, as the Penguins quickly tied the game at 1 and then erupted for two more goals in the first period.
3) The Penguins power play continues to be anemic. After their 1-for-6 showing on Friday (and that one came just seconds before the penalty to Chris Clark expired) the Penguins are just 4-for-23 in the series.
The two teams return to action on Saturday, in Washington, with a 7 PM ET face-off.
