Penguins Beat Capitals, Close Out Season on High Note

Winning this game really did not matter for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

The two points they earned by defeating Washington, 5-2, at PPG Paints Thursday night didn’t get them into the playoffs. Didn’t allow them to finish the season with a .500 record. Didn’t even extend any meaningful streak.

Fact is, it actually cost them a chance to move up a slot in the pre-lottery draft order because Buffalo’s 5-4 victory over Philadelphia would have allowed the Sabres to climb past the Penguins if the Capitals had won the game.

As it is, the Penguins will enter the lottery in the No.  9 spot.

Despite any downside, however, defeating Washington allows the Penguins to enter the offseason on a positive note.

And in a season that had no shortage of defeats and disappointments, that surely is a plus, even if a lot of the players who participated in this game will be working elsewhere in the fall.

The Penguins finished with a 34-36-12 record. That translates to 80 points, their fewest in an 82-game season since they earned 58 in 2005-06, when Sidney Crosby was a rookie, by going 22-46-14.

They will sit out the Stanley Cup playoffs for the third consecutive spring.

Washington, conversely, finished first in the Eastern Conference and will face Montreal in Round 1 of the playoffs.

Defensemen Kris Letang and P.O Joseph and forward Kevin Hayes did not dress for the Penguins. Forward Sam Poulin, summoned from their farm team in Wilkes-Barre on an emergency recall Thursday, played in his seventh NHL game this season.

Defensemen Erik Karlsson and Matt Grzelcyk were their only players to appear in all 82 games.

Here are the Penguins’ leaders in some of the major statistical categories:

Goals — Rickard Rakell, 35.

Assists — Sidney Crosby, 58.

Points — Crosby, 91.

Shots — Crosby, 227.

Power-play goals — Crosby, 12.

Overtime goals — Crosby, 4.

Game-winning goals — Crosby, 10.

First goals — Crosby, 6.

Empty-net goals — Bryan Rust, Crosby, 3 each.

Penalty minutes — Letang, 52.

Hits — Noel Acciari, 180.

Blocked shots — Grzelcyk, 101.

Plus/minus — Conor Timmins, plus-9.

Ice time — Letang, 23:32.

Giveaways — Karlsson, 140.

Takeaways — Karlsson, 44.

Wahington grabbed a 1-0 lead at 4:08 of the opening period, when Connor McMichael capped a 2-on-1 break against Penguins defenseman Vladislav Kolyachonok by punching a Tim Wilson rebound past Penguins goalie Alex Nedeljkovic.

Rust countered for the Penguins just 46 seconds later, swiping in a Grzelcyk rebound from the inner edge of the left circle for his career-high 30th of the season. Ville Koivunen, who got his stick on Grzelcyk’s shot on its way to the net, picked up the second assist.

Vasily Ponomarev nearly put the Penguins in front midway through the period, but put a shot off the crossbar behind Washington goalie Clay Stevenson, who was making his first NHL start, at the end of a 2-on-1 with Crosby.

Capitals winger Andrew Mangiapane was penalized for holding the stick at 6:19 of the second period, and the Penguins needed exactly one minute to go in front, 2-1.

Rust got that one, too, beating Stevenson from close to the bottom of the left circle after taking a blind, backhand feed from Crosby, who was near the left side of the crease.

Crosby’s assist was his 90th point of the season. Koivunen got the second assist.

The Capitals killed a cross-checking minor assessed to defenseman Dylan McIlrath at 7:56, and appeared to tie the game just 32 seconds after that penalty expired.

However, Dylan Strome’s goal was waved off after the Penguins challenged that Washington’s Alex Ovechkin had entered the zone before the puck did. A quick video review confirmed that he had, in fact, been offside.

Crosby pushed the Penguins’ advantage to 3-1 at 11:56, throwing a shot past Stevenson from the inner edge of the right circle after taking a feed from Philip Tomasino. Connor Dewar received the second assist on the goal, Crosby’s 33rd.

Ovechkin made amends for his earlier gaffe by hammering a slap shot past Nedeljkovic from the top of the left circle at 16:56, while Crosby was serving a hooking minor. The goal was his 897th, adding to his NHL record.

Koivunen appeared to score his first NHL goal at 4:14 of the third period, but the goal was waved off when a video review showed that he had pushed the puck across the goal line with his left hand.

Rakell was sent off for interference at 6:46, giving the Capitals a chance to pull even.

Instead, Danton Heinen blew a shot past Stevenson high on the stick side when he got a breakaway as Rakell’s penalty was expiring, and Tomasino scored from the slot 15 seconds later to put the Penguins in front, 5-2.