Kevin Gorman’s Take 5 on Game 5: Five thoughts on Capitals 6, Penguins 3

By: HSSN Staff
Saturday, May 5, 2018 | 10:17 PM

WASHINGTON — With their Stanley Cup playoffs second-round series tied at 2-2 going into Game 5 on Saturday night, it served as an opportunity for one team to take command of the best-of-seven series.

It wasn't the Penguins.

1. Secondary concern: The first period saw the Penguins end a storyline that was starting to become an annoyance.

They finally got an even-strength goal without Sidney Crosby, Jake Guentzel or Patric Hornqvist on the ice, a struggle that forced Penguins coach Mike Sullivan to shuffle his lines in Game 4 in search of secondary scoring.

The goal came courtesy of the fourth line, of all places.

It started with Conor Sheary getting the puck behind the net and feeding it to Derick Brassard, who set up defenseman Jamie Oleksiak at the blue line.

Oleksiak beat Braden Holtby to score his first goal of the playoffs, giving the Penguins a 1-0 lead at 2 minutes, 23 seconds of the first period.

It didn't last long.

2. Two-minute drill: Matt Murray made several spectacular stops in the first few minutes, from a stick save on Alex Ovechkin to blocking a breakaway by Chandler Stephenson.

But in the final two minutes, the Capitals got a couple pucks past the Penguins goalie, through little fault of his own.

On a power play for a Dominik Simon tripping penalty, John Carlson launched a rocket from center point to tie the game at 1-1 at 18:22.

That goal had yet to be announced when, 23 seconds later, Brett Connolly scored from the slot after Hornqvist partially blocked his shot and the rolling puck squirted through Murray's legs to give the Capitals a 2-1 lead at 18:55.

Again, it didn't last long.

3. Taking a toll: When Ovechkin took a slashing penalty with two seconds left in the first period, it was a foreshadowing of things to come.

The Capitals killed that penalty to start the second period, but Ovechkin took another at 4:24 by knocking Evgeni Malkin's stick out of his hands.

It was the first of two penalties by the Capitals that proved costly. The Penguins scored a power-play goal when Phil Kessel's wrister from the left circle was redirected by Crosby to tie it at 2-2 at 4:43 of the second.

Devante Smith-Pelly took a tripping penalty that set up another power-play goal. Kessel centered it to Hornqvist, whose shot from the slot was rebounded by Malkin and finally tapped in by Hornqvist for a 3-2 lead at 7:45.

It didn't last long, either.

4. Quick strike: If there's a disturbing trend for the Penguins, it's the number of goals they have allowed in the first minute of a period.

Evgeny Kuznetsov scored 17 seconds into the first period and Ovechkin 28 seconds into the third of Game 1 and Carlson 49 seconds into the second of Game 3.

The Penguins allowed another when Jakub Vrana sent a stretch pass through the neutral zone to Kuzentsov for a breakaway — catching defensemen Kris Letang and Brian Dumoulin stationed on the left side of the blue line — and Kuznetsov beat Murray on a backhand to tie it, 3-3, 52 seconds into the third.

5. No place like… : Home-ice advantage hadn't meant much for either team, as both the Penguins and Capitals were 4-1 on the road and 2-3 at home.

Vrana's winner at 15:22 reversed that trend, as the Capitals cruised to a 6-3 victory and a 3-2 series edge.

The Penguins have no choice but to make that trend last longer than their leads.

Kevin Gorman is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at kgorman@tribweb.com or via Twitter @KGorman_Trib.