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Penguins-Capitals Preview

Apr 30, 2016 - 8:52 PM The Washington Capitals' stars shined the brightest in an opening act that will be hard to top.

Now its up to Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins to answer in Game 2 when the series resumes Saturday night.

This marquee second-round matchup featuring the NHL's two premier players lived up to its immense hype in Thursday's Game 1, though neither Crosby nor Alex Ovechkin had the greatest impact on the outcome. T.J. Oshie instead played the leading role in Washington's 4-3 victory, completing his first playoff hat trick with a wraparound goal 9:33 into overtime.

''That's kind of the stuff you dream about when you're a kid playing in the backyard by yourself is scoring the OT winner and getting a hat trick,'' Oshie said. ''It was awesome. Great way to win.''

Oshie was the unlikely hero on a night when the Capitals' top line outplayed Pittsburgh's unit of Crosby, Patric Hornqvist and Conor Sheary. Despite garnering a reputation as a big-game player for his shootout performance in the United States' win over Russia at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, the offseason addition entered the opener with just six goals in 36 career playoff games.

Ovechkin didn't score but was still effective, assisting on Oshie's second goal and finishing plus-3.

Crosby was held to one shot and his line ended minus-3, the one glaring negative on an otherwise strong showing by the Penguins on the road. Pittsburgh outshot the Capitals 45-35 and fought back to force overtime on Nick Bonino's goal 8:42 into the third period.

"This game could have went either way," coach Mike Sullivan said. "It was an even game. Our guys played hard. I thought we carried stretches of momentum for long periods of time. It didn't go our way. We'll learn from it, put it behind us and try to get Game 2."

The line of Bonino, Carl Hagelin and Phil Kessel was on the ice for two goals and Evgeni Malkin scored his third in five games since returning from injury. Rookie Matt Murray recorded 31 saves - including two breakaway stops on Ovechkin - in his fourth playoff start in place of Marc-Andre Fleury, who remains out indefinitely with concussion symptoms.

"He made the saves and gave us a chance to win," Sullivan said.

Pittsburgh did have problems matching Washington's physicality, with the Capitals owning a 43-29 advantage in hits. Sheary briefly left the game in the third period following a knee-on-knee collision with Tom Wilson, a play that wasn't penalized but drew a $2,404 fine from the league, the maximum allowable under the current collective bargaining agreement.

"I know we're a bigger team and we're best when we play with our size and weight," Capitals coach Barry Trotz said. "You've got to use your assets. If we're going to have puck possession, we're going to have to do it with our size. We're going to have to go to the net. We're going to have to do all the things we do well."

The bigger issue for the Penguins could be solving Braden Holtby, who continued his excellent playoff run with 42 saves. The Vezina Trophy finalist has a 1.12 goals-against average and .960 save percentage this postseason.

Neither team was a factor on the power play, with the Capitals 0 for 6 and Pittsburgh 0 for 2. That also was the case during the teams' five regular-season meetings in which the Penguins went 1 for 18 and Washington 2 for 16.

Both teams had eight power-play goals in the first round, but the Capitals are 0 for 14 in the last four games with the man advantage after converting five times in their 6-1 rout of Philadelphia in Game 3.