Caps Implode, Penguins Advance to Eastern Conference Finals

WASHINGTON -- After watching the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Washington Capitals play six of the most tightly-contested playoff games in recent memory, just about every last one of the 18,277 fans who showed up at Verizon Center on Wednesday night were probably expecting yet another nail-biter between two teams that couldn't be more evenly matched.

What they got instead was a 6-2 blowout win by Pittsburgh.

How did it happen? Simply put, the Penguins put their foot on the gas early and didn't let up.

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The highlight of the night for Washington came a little more than three minutes in when Alex Ovechkin -- whom we would later find out was dealing with a groin injury all series long -- was sprung on a breakaway on Pittsburgh goalie Marc-Andre Fleury. Ovechkin let loose with a snap shot, but Fleury snagged it with his glove hand. "In this series, he got some goals, but I saw him coming down [tonight] and it was coming pretty quick," said Fleury. "I just try to make some saves. It was nice to my teammates [to] take the goal away and turn the game around."

It was all downhill for Washington from there.

With defenseman Shaone Morrisonn in the box at 11:29 of the first period for slashing, the Penguins got the opportunity they needed to break through against Washington goalie Simeon Varlamov. Early in the series, Sidney Crosby set up an office down low just outside the Washington crease and was never asked to move, scoring garbage goal after garbage goal. That scenario replayed itself to put the Penguins on top.

With Pittsburgh on the power play, defenseman Sergei Gonchar let loose with a slap shot from the top of the slot. But the puck was deflected, and Crosby kicked it onto the blade of his stick and tapped it in for a 1-0 Penguins lead.

"So many times throughout the first six games we got a lead, and it was only a one-goal lead and we allowed basically one mistake to get them back in the hockey game," Crosby said. "Varlamov made some huge saves throughout the whole series, and tonight I'm sure he'd like a couple back, but we did a lot of good things and deserved the ones we got.

Only 8 seconds later, Pittsburgh stretched the lead to 2-0. Taking advantage of a weak clearing pass by Brian Pothier, the Penguins were able to gain the Washington zone off the turnover. After intercepting Pothier's clearing attempt, Ruslan Fedotenko found Craig Adams all alone with a pass on the right wing. Adams let go with what looked like a stoppable wrist shot that beat Varlamov through the five hole, stunning the home crowd into silence.



All in all, the first period was a textbook display of dominance by the Penguins as they outshot the Capitals, 16-5. Pittsburgh's forecheck kept Washington bottled up inside its own zone and consistently short-circuited the Capitals breakout. "Discipline was huge," said Pittsburgh defenseman Brooks Orpik after the game. "We kept their power play off the ice the entire game."

Under such unrelenting pressure, it was a miracle that Washington's rookie goalie didn't break earlier. Just seconds into the second period, though, that's exactly what happened.

Inside of the first minute of the middle period, Crosby broke up the right-wing boards and into the Capitals zone. Washington defenseman MIke Green -- whom we also learned after the game was hurt all series long -- picked up Crosby at the Washington blue line, but made the mistake of giving the Pittsburgh center too much room to operate. That allowed Crosby to hit a trailing Bill Guerin with a pass as he crossed over the Washington blue line, unleashing a slapper that Varlamov just couldn't handle to make it 3-0.

"I still thought after the first period, you know, we have had bad periods before and always come back," said Washington head coach Bruce Boudreau."I thought that when it was Simeon, after the third goal, I was thinking of pulling him because he looked really dejected and maybe I should have called a timeout at that point."

Less than two minutes later, the lead increased to 4-0, as Varlamov was scorched by a Kris Letang slap shot from the top of the right wing faceoff circle. With that, Boudreau yanked the rookie in favor of Jose Theodore, whom we hadn't seen since the end of Game 1 in the Caps' opening-round series with the Rangers. "But I think after the fourth goal the wind came completely out of his sails emotionally," Boudreau said. "He has been holding us in and done so much ... I wish I had made the change one goal sooner."

Later, Varlamov wasn't arguing: "I did not have my game tonight, and at that point we were down 4-0 and coach's decision was absolutely right."

The Penguins weren't fazed. A few minutes later, Jordan Staal scored on a beautiful give-and-go play off a pass from Miroslav Satan to make it 5-0 as the rout turned into an utter embarassment.

Washington would get a couple of goals to make it a little more respectable. Ovechkin got one back before the end of the second period by taking advantage of a misplay by Fleury. But any hope of a comeback was snuffed out by Crosby, as he took advantage of a giveaway by Ovechkin during a Pittsburgh third-period power play. Skating in all alone on Theodore, Crosby stuck in the dagger and made it 6-1.

Washington's Brooks Laich closed out the scoring at 6:35 of the third to make it 6-2, as the home crowd counted down the last few minutes of the season.

Afterward, the Washington locker room was pretty somber, with Ovechkin eschewing a trip to the postgame podium to face the press in front of his locker. "I'm very disappointed," he said. "They play better. First ten minutes were pretty good, getting pucks in deep. I didn't score on the breakaway, so if I score first goal, maybe a different game. I didn't score it. They're experienced guys. They're a great team. They played great."

Indeed, the Penguins did. But while Washington will spend the summer answering questions about how it could possibly get blown out at home during a Game 7, the Penguins will get to rest up and wait for the outcome of the Boston-Carolina series Thursday night. For a Pittsburgh team that fired its coach a little more than midway through the regular season, it's an unlikely and delightful place to be.