*Photo from PensBurgh*
The Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals entered Thursday night's matchup against each other both needing at least one point to clinch a playoff berth. Well, the game went to overtime, and the New York Rangers lost, so both teams have locked up a playoff spot. Kasperi Kapanen scored twice, Jake Guentzel scored the winning goal, and the Penguins took down the Capitals with a 5-4 overtime win.
In the first period, each side recorded a goal to leave it at 1-1 after the opening period, with TJ Oshie scoring for the Caps and Kapanen scoring for the Pens. Both teams then scored two goals apiece in the second to make it a 3-3 game, with Dmitry Orlov and Daniel Sprong scoring for Washington, and Frederick Gaudreau and Zach Aston-Reese scoring for Pittsburgh. In the 3rd, a goal by Kapanen for Pittsburgh and Tom Wilson for the Caps made it 4-4 entering OT, where Guentzel scored 2:11 into overtime to give the Pens a big win.
Guentzel talked about what led up to his winning goal, saying it was a "Heads up play by McCann to find Johnny in the slot, and just a really nice play from Johnny there to find me at the back door. Really good play by those two and I was just on the end of it."
Tristan Jarry got the start in net for Pittsburgh, and got lots of shots going his way in the win, stopping 33 of 37 shots he saw across regulation and OT. Jarry got his record up to 22-9-3 this season, while the Penguins got up to 33-15-3 this season, clinching a playoff berth for the 15th straight season, the longest streak in North American professional sports.
Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said of making the playoffs that "We're going to enjoy this one tonight. These guys have competed extremely hard all year long to earn the privilege to compete for the Stanley Cup in the playoffs. I'm certainly proud of the group for what they've accomplished to this point. By no means are any of us satisfied. We understand that there's a lot of work to do but we're going to take a deep breath tonight and just enjoy it."
For the Capitals, they have clinched their 7th straight playoff spot, and their 13th in 14 years, an impressive run of it's own. Vitek Vanecek got the start for Washington, stopping 30 of 35 shots across regulation and OT, with the Capitals officially clinching once the Rangers lost to the New York Islanders, with their record now at 32-13-5.
Capitals coach Peter Laviolette said of clinching a playoff spot that "It's good. We didn't talk about it too much, to be honest with you. It was always a bigger picture than that that we were talking about. But you should never take anything for granted. It's a hard league, and the whole objective is to qualify to play for the Cup, so that's in the rearview mirror."
The Penguins and Capitals face off again Saturday night, with Jarry expected to start for the Penguins, and Ilya Samsonov expected to go for the Capitals.
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