STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS Penguins shut out Washington, 3-0

By TOM WILLIAMS
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
PITTSBURGH -- Five weeks ago, Johan Hedberg was an unknown minor league goalie who wouldn't dare to dream about the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Monday, Hedberg stood as tall as the Washington Monument, at least in the eyes of the Washington Capitals.
Hedberg extended his postseason shutout streak by another 60 minutes, as the Pittsburgh Penguins defeated the Capitals 3-0 in Game 3 of their opening-round playoff series at Mellon Arena.
Lead series 2-1: Kevin Stevens, Alexei Kovalev and Jan Hrdina scored goals for the Penguins, who lead the best-of-7 series two games to one. Game 4 is Wednesday night at 7.
Just about all the participants agreed, the key to the game and perhaps the series came when Pittsburgh limited the Capitals to just one shot during an 81-second, two-man advantage late in the second period.
"Everybody seemed to get energy from [that sequence]," said Hedberg, who stopped 34 shots for his first NHL shutout.
Washington coach Ron Wilson said Hedberg, a 27-year-old from Sweden, was the difference.
"You have to tip your hat to their goalie -- he hasn't made a mistake in the series yet.
"We had a number of good chances, the best period of the series so far," Wilson said. "The worst part of our game today was the 5-on-3."
The Capitals' opportunity came about when Pittsburgh defensemen Darius Kasparaitus and Bob Boughner were whistled off in a 39-second span and the Penguins leading 1-0.
Only one shot: But, during the 1 minute, 21 seconds Washington had a 5-on-3 advantage, Sergei Gonchar's blast from the point was the only shot Hedberg faced.
Mario Lemieux, Wayne Primeau and Marc Bergevin denied Washington in the first minute of the 5-on-3, while Janne Laukken, Martin Straka and Hrdina finished.
"They did an amazing job," Hedberg said. "[The Capitals] didn't get a shot through during a crucial part of the game."
Washington had at least a one-man advantage for 2:39 in that span, yet Gonchar's shot was the Capitals' only scoring attempt.
"It was a big kill because they have so many weapons on the power play with [Adam] Oates, [Peter] Bondra, Gonchar," Bergevin said. "They have so many options.
"Hopefully, we will stay away from those 5-on-3s because with their power play, it could be dangerous."
Lemieux said, "Once again, we played well defensively. We didn't give up too much, especially in the neutral zone.
"We could see they changed to another game plan to try and get their offense going, but you have to give us credit because we didn't give them any room."
Defense takes over: After taking the lead on Stevens' second goal of the playoffs, the defensive-minded Penguins held Washington to 11 shots.
Halfway through the second period, Morozov pounced on a loose puck to the right of Capitals' goalie Olaf Kolzig.
His pass into the slot deflected off Primeau's stick to Stevens, who flipped the puck past the scrambling Kolzig.
"It's always nice to score a goal when every shot and every shift means so much," said Stevens, who rejoined the team on Jan. 14 in a trade from Philadelphia.
"I just whacked it," Stevens said. "I don't try to pick corners, I just whack pucks and hope they go in."
Stevens, a former All-Star left winger, is in his first playoff series since being traded away from the Penguins in 1995.
Pittsburgh's lead doubled five minutes into the third period when Robert Lang's cross-ice pass set up a Kovalev wrist shot from the faceoff circle that beat Kolzig on the glove side.
Two-and-a-half minutes later, Jaromir Jagr skated in on Kolzig, faked the goalie out of the net and fed a pass to Hrdina for an easy tap-in.