Penguins Fall To Determined Capitals, 6-3

Last year's for-the-ages Eastern Conference Semifinal playoff series between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals certainly had a lasting effect.

In Pittsburgh's case, they capitalized on the momentum they obtained from coming back to beat a huge rival in one of the league's best playoff series in a decade to go on and win the Stanley Cup.

But the effect didn't stop there.

The Washington Capitals clearly gained from that series too, as difficult as it may have been to lose it at the time.

And what they gained was on display Thursday night as they played 60 minutes of determined hockey and demonstrated they can lock down a team defensively when they need to in a 6-3 defeat over the Penguins at Mellon Arena.

I apologize for not getting this up sooner; work and family committments gave me no opportunity to recap the game as early as I expected to be able to do so. But that hasn't changed how impressive the Capitals were that night.

They overcame an early 1-0 deficit after a puck handling gaffe by their starting goaltender, Jose Theodore, and scored 6 of the next 8 goals in the game, including some nice efforts by their new (still hated) captain, Alexander Ovechkin.

On Washington's first goal to tie the game, he made a beautiful curl and drag move down the near boards to get by Pens' defenseman Kris Letang and toss a shot on goal that Pittsburgh netminder Brent Johnson stopped, but that also permitted LW Mike Knuble to bang home on the rebound.

Johnson got caught leaning the wrong way on Washington's second goal, by winger Eric Fehr, but after the Pens' scored the next two to take a 3-2 lead on the first NHL goal by Wilkes-Barre call-up and rookie Nick Johnson and a snap shot from 40 feet out by defenseman Kris Letang, things were looking up for the Penguins.

Rather than wilt like they may have in a similar situation in the past, however, the Capitals' resolve stiffened and they took over the game.

Ovechkin scored a power play goal from the point late in the 2nd period to tie the game, wristing -- that's right, WRISTING -- a shot from there that cleanly beat Johnson.

Then, early in the 3rd period, Washington scored two goals in less than a minute to take control -- a breakaway goal by Tomas Fleischmann and weak chip in from in front of the net by Nicklas Backstrom.

Then Ovechkin finished things off with an empty netter late in the third.

And so, the first of what surely are going to be 4 epic contests between these clubs this year went to the Capitals.

Hopefully, goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury will be in goal for the other games because Johnson was not strong in the net for the Penguins. Johnson went through a stretch earlier in the season where he was pretty strong in a reserve role for a few months, but he obviously isn't feeling that some mojo right now. He was leaning on several plays, got beat easily by Fleischmann on the breakaway, and was not strong near the goal. It clearly wasn't his best game. It was backup goaltending, really. And against Washington, that's not an easy crutch to have to hold on to.

On the bright side, it was nice to see Nick Johnson get his first NHL goal. It was an easy one around the net, but I'm sure he'll take it. And ven if he let Fleischmann get behind him on the breakaway goal while he covered for a pinching Letang later in the game, I thought he didn't look out of place overall.

He certainly looked better than fellow call-up, Dustin Jeffrey, who looked confused out there on the ice most of the time, which I found strange since he played 14 games at this level last season.

Johnson's linemates, meanwhile, Evgeni Malkin and Ruslan Fedotenko also had strong games, assisting on all three of the Pens' goals.

I, like most everyone else, can't wait for the next matchup between these two clubs -- in Washington for a nationally televised game on NBC at noon on Super Bowl Sunday.

That actually will be the third straight week the Penguins are on NBC's Sunday game of the week.

More shortly.