Caps Beat Pens in OT

The Washington Capitols beat rivals Pittsburgh Penguins in a shootout Wednesday night in the second overtime between the two teams at the Verizon Center this year. The club tie their record points total for a single season at 108.

Penguins forward Jordan Staal tied the game at three with 3:06 remaining in the third period. After the five minutes of 4-on-4 overtime hockey failed to produced a result for either team Pittsburgh then went up 2-0, off the sticks of Kris Letang and superstar Sidney Crosby, in the ensuing shootout.

Russian duo Alex Ovechkin and Alexander Semin deked Pens goalie Marc-Andre Fleury to net the goals that tied the affair before Mike Knuble scored his first career shootout goal giving the Caps their second straight win. He was 0-4 in the extra time situation before last night.

The excitment down the stretch was intense as the Caps overturned a 2-1 third period deficit due to a shorthanded goal by Semin and a deflected goal by Eric Fehr less than two minutes apart.

The game's three stars included Semin and Staal who were joined by Capitols goalie Jose Theodore who came away from the game with 39 saves in 65 minutes and a .929 save percentage. The game was Theodore's seventh straight win and also extended his regulation unbeaten streak to 19 games, going 17-0-2 in that span.

Washington now has a chance to clinch first place in the Eastern Conference with a New Jersey Devils loss to the New York Rangers in their meeting Thursday.

Scoring Summary:
1st:
None

2nd:
[Washington - 1:02] Knuble (26) A: Backstrom, Ovechkin
[Pittsburgh - 2:21] Talbot (2) A: Orpik, Adams
[Pittsburgh - 14:39 - PPG] Guerin (19) A: Crosby, Ponikarovsky

3rd:
[Washington - 5:36 - SHG] Semin (34) A: None
[Washington - 7:32] Fehr (21) A: Green, Belanger
[Pittsburgh - 16:54] Staal (21) A: Kunitz, Leopold

OT:
None

SO:
[Pittsburgh] Letang (Goal)
[Washington] Backstrom (Save)
[Pittsburgh] Crosby (Goal)
[Washington] Ovechkin (Goal)
[Pittsburgh] Guerin (Save)
[Washington] Semin (Goal)
[Pittsburgh] Kunitz (Save)
[Washington] Knuble (Goal)