*Photo from NHL.com*
The Pittsburgh Penguins have their first win of the NHL season. Casey Desmith made his first start since the 2018-2019 season, Jake Guentzel scored in the shootout, and the Penguins beat the Washington Capitals 4-3 in the shootout. The win gives Pittsburgh their first, as they improve to 1-2, while Washington drops to 2-0-1.
Evan Rodrigues got the scoring started just 19 seconds into the game, making it 1-0 Penguins early on. At 12:04 of the first, Nic Dowd tied it up at one for the Capitals. At 14:24, Alex Ovechkin found the back of the net to make it a 2-1 Capitals lead. In the second Colton Sceviour, Nicklas Backstrom, and Marcus Petterson all scored, making it a 3-3 tie. In the shootout, Guentzel was the only player on both sides to score.
Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said of the win that "We're trying to establish ourselves in the standings. We come out of the first couple of games without any points, and I thought we played better than the results that we got, but that's hockey. Sometimes that happens. So, we just had to make sure that we responded the right way today. And to get two points I think is important for our team. I was happy for our players. I think that should give them a boost of confidence."
Desmith said of his first start since 2018-2019 that "The only thing I was really focused on was getting a win. Obviously the first period, they got two on me, so I'm just happy I could battle back the rest the game. The team played great in the second two periods and then even better in overtime, and then I had Guentzy here to help me out."
Capitals left wing Jakub Vrana talked about the loss, saying that "Individual battles were not there for us today. And when you lose those, you lose momentum in the game and it creates chances for the other team. In the first period, we picked up the pace. Second period, we were not there at all. Third period, we had a few looks; it was even I would say. But we definitely have another gear here."
These two teams square off again Tuesday night, with Capitals backup Vitek Vanecek drawing the start. Desmith will start again for the Penguins.
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