Fehr enough: Penguins tie series

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

Eric Fehr scored the tiebreaking goal against his former team with about 41/2 minutes remaining Saturday night, giving the Pittsburgh Penguins a 2-1 victory over the Washington Capitals that tied the Eastern Conference second-round playoff series at a game apiece.

Fehr redirected a pass out of a corner from Evgeni Malkin, sending the puck off the right post and past goalie Braden Holtby. Fehr played parts of nine seasons in Washington across two stints before leaving as a free agent last summer to join Pittsburgh.

Carl Hagelin had put Pittsburgh ahead in second period of Game 2, before Marcus Johansson pulled Washington even on a power play with about 16 minutes to go in the third.

The series shifts to Pittsburgh for Game 3 on Monday night.

The Penguins improved to 43-0 this season, including the playoffs, when leading after two periods. They have not lost two consecutive games in 31/2 months — since dropping a pair in overtime against Carolina and Tampa Bay on Jan. 12 and 14.

This time, Pittsburgh recovered quickly from its 4-3 overtime loss in Game 1 on Thursday night, and did it in part by again shutting down Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin, who led the NHL with 50 goals this season.

While Penguins star Sidney Crosby didn’t factor in Saturday’s scoring, either, Malkin did provide a spark on the go-ahead goal, and 21-year-old rookie goalie Matt Murray made 23 saves.

Holtby had 33 stops.

The tone for the scrappy game was established less than 41/2 minutes in, when Washington’s Brooks Orpik leveled Olli Maatta with a high hit, and the Penguins defenseman fell backward, his helmet slamming to the ice. Maatta was helped off and did not return — his total ice time for the game limited to 31 seconds.

Twelve of the game’s first 13 shots on goal were taken by Pittsburgh.

The Penguins did not generate much in the way of truly dangerous chances, however, and the Capitals began to look more active at the offensive end in the closing minutes, when Murray blocked a backhand by T.J. Oshie — he of the hat trick in Game 1 — from the top of the crease during a power play.