Penguins pay for errors, fall to Capitals, 6-3
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Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin, center celebrates after assisting on goal in the second period of Tuesday's game at Mellon Arena as Penguins defenseman Brooks Orpik looks away.
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The Penguins will play their final regular-season game at Mellon Arena Thursday night.
Perform the way they did at times in a 6-3 loss to Washington Tuesday night, and their last playoff game there will not be too far in the future, either.
The Capitals, who already had clinched the Presidents' Trophy as the NHL's top regular-season team, did not have much to play for, aside from the sheer joy of beating a team they clearly detest.
Turned out that was all it took, though, because the Penguins were so willing to self-destruct. If there's a formula for defeating a team as skilled and opportunistic as Washington, the Penguins established beyond all doubt that it does not revolve around horrific breakdowns, unforced errors and porous goaltending.
"We're not making a ton of mistakes," Penguins center Jordan Staal said. "But when we do, they're usually pretty big ones. And they're definitely a team that can capitalize."
The loss dropped the Penguins into second place in the Atlantic Division and fourth in the Eastern Conference. They are two points behind first-place New Jersey in the Atlantic.
The Penguins' final three games will be against non-playoff clubs; they will face the New York Islanders twice and Atlanta once. New Jersey must play Florida, the Islanders and Buffalo and can clinch first place by winning two of those games because it would be assured of winning the head-to-head tiebreaker.
As if his team sweeping the season series was not enough, Capitals left winger Alex Ovechkin rubbed it in by scoring into an empty net with two-tenths of a second to play, pulling into a tie with Sidney Crosby for first place in the NHL goal-scoring race.
Crosby, who got the Penguins' first goal and assisted on the other two to push his points total to 100, and Ovechkin have 48 each, one more than Steven Stamkos of Tampa Bay.
Things actually began to unravel for the Penguins before the game, when center Evgeni Malkin was a late scratch because of illness.
"That was a total surprise," coach Dan Bylsma said.
With Malkin unavailable, the Penguins dressed seven defensemen and put Max Talbot in Malkin's spot between Alexei Ponikarovsky and Bill Guerin on the second line.
First Published April 7, 2010 12:00 am
