Pens celebrate banner raise with SO win over Caps

Four months after winning the franchises fourth Stanley Cup the Penguins players finally got to witness the banner being raised above the newly named PPG Paints Arena Ice. The banner joins the three others although, rather annoyingly, not in chronological order. Barry Trotz mentioned that the Caps would either watch from the bench or their room and as they were nowhere to be seen, we can assume they watched with jealousy from their locker room.

With the Washington Nationals being eliminated from the MLB play-offs on the same night, the Capitals were hoping to give Washington something to cheer. They started brightly and scored the first goal of the game just 56 seconds in through Andre Burakovsky when he fired through Fleury's traditional five hole weakspot.

The Capitals were ineffective on the extra man and twice failed to convert before Patric Hornqvist scored a tipped shot from the blue line from Letang. Washington originally appealed for a high-stick but it was given after a review. Malkin scored his first goal of the season shortly after and Burakovsky tied it late in the third to send it to a shoot-out.

Phil Kessel and Evgeni Malkin both went high on Holtby, whilst Letang went low. All three scored with Nick Bonino missing on the first shot. The Capitals ran the Penguins close with TJ Oshie, the best at the penalty shootout in the game and Nicklas Backstrom both extending it. Following Kessel's goal, which had to be reviewed as it was originally thought you have hit the post and stayed out, Fleury stood tall to prevent Ovie.

This was a strong win without Crosby and Ovechkin had a particularly poor game extending his pointless streak in Pittsburgh to 6 games. He had his usual number of shots on goal but failed to produce. Both goalies stood strong but Fleury had the larger workload, stopping 39 of the Capitals 41 shots. The Penguins play Anaheim on Saturday, hopefully Crosby will be back.