Capitals 4, Penguins 3 (OT)
WASHINGTON -- T.J. Oshie completed a hat trick when he scored the game-winning goal at 9:33 of overtime and the Washington Capitals defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-3 on Thursday in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference semifinal.
Oshie's wraparound attempt snuck under the pad of goaltender Matthew Murphy and survived a lengthy video review.
Andre Burakovsky also scored for Washington and Braden Holtby made 42 saves.
Game 2 is set for Saturday.
Nick Bonino had a goal and an assist for Pittsburgh, and Ben Lovejoy and Evgeni Malkin added a goal apiece. Carl Hagelin had two assists.
Murray finished with 31 saves.
The first postseason meeting between Alex Ovechkin's Capitals and Sidney Crosby's Penguins since 2009 lived up to the hype with end-to-end action and 80 shots on goal.
The Capitals took a 3-2 lead at 3:23 of the third when Ovechkin recovered his own blocked shot and fed Oshie, whose backhander slid under Murray's right pad.
Bonino got the equalizer at 8:42 when Hagelin fed him from behind the end line and Bonino's deflected shot trickled past Holtby.
Murray preserved the tie with a pad save on Ovechkin's breakaway attempt with 3:20 left in regulation.
Washington earned the Presidents' Trophy and home ice advantage throughout the playoffs with a 120-point regular season, but Pittsburgh was the hottest entering the postseason after going 28-10-3 during the second half of the season.
Washington took a 1-0 lead following an odd-man rush midway through the first period. Murray made the initial save on Jason Chimera from the slot, but Burakovsky was alone in front and scored on the rebound at 10:13.
It was Burakovsky's first point of the postseason.
The Penguins got untracked during a second period in which they outshot Washington 17-7 and scored twice in a 57-second span.
Pittsburgh tied it when Bonino made a beautiful deke to get around defenseman Dmitry Orlov at the Washington blue line. His shot was stopped by Holtby, but Lovejoy poked the rebound home.
Then with the Penguins cycling in the Washington zone, Malkin came off the bench, took a feed from Chris Kunitz in the left circle and lifted a backhander over Holtby's left shoulder at 11:37 to make it 2-1.
The lead lasted less than 30 seconds however, as Oshie stole a pass by defenseman Olli Maatta, skated in alone on Murray and fired over his glove to tie the score.
NOTES: The teams are meeting for the ninth time in the postseason and the first since 2008-09. The Penguins won that Eastern Conference Semifinals meeting in seven games, and have won seven of the eight series. ... Penguins F Conor Sheary sat out the last two practices but was in the lineup. ... Pittsburgh scratched D Justin Schultz, C Oskar Sundqvist, RW Beau Bennett and D Derrick Pouliot. ... Capitals D Brooks Orpik, who suffered an upper body injury in Game 3 against the Flyers, returned after missing three games. ... D Karl Alzner (upper body), who sat out the past two Washington practices, was active. ... The Capitals scratched D Taylor Chorney, D Mike Weber, LW Stanislav Galiev and C Michael Latta.