It is beginning to tighten around the Washington Capitals' necks and will grow tighter still if the Penguins win Wednesday.
Penguins goaltender Johan Hedberg - the man with the Moose Mask - took the series by the antlers Monday night, stopping 34 shots in a 3-0 victory at Mellon Arena.
The Penguins lead the best-of-seven series, two games to one, with Game 4 slated for 7 p.m. Wednesday at the same site.
When the standing-room-only crowd of 17,148 chanted 'Mooooose!' after Hedberg's best saves, many Penguins players had no idea what they were hearing.
'Moose⢠I thought it was for Boogs (defenseman Bob Boughner),' Darius Kasparaitis said. 'They call him Moose⢠That's cool.'
So is Hedberg, who made his third career playoff start. He saw more quality shots in the first 30 minutes than he had seen the first two games, but he never blinked. He challenged shooters, whipped the puck around like a young Tom Barrasso and allowed precious few rebounds.
'Hellie - or Moose, whatever his name is - kept us in the game,' Kasparaitis said. 'Let's call him Moose. Moose kept us in the game. Sometimes, goalies have to win for you. That's what he did.'
The moose chant was inspired by Hedberg's powder blue mask, which he started wearing with the Manitoba Moose of the International Hockey League.
Hedberg has a mask painted in Penguins colors - it was made for him in his native Sweden - but he isn't about to change anything. His teammates won't let him. He has won nine of 12 decisions since joining the team straight from Manitoba - and he has held the Capitals without a goal for 110 minutes, 35 seconds. He has stopped 77 of 79 shots overall.
'It's a thank you to the Manitoba Moose, who got me here, so I don't mind,' Hedberg said.
Hedberg's work allowed the Penguins to stay in the game until Kevin Stevens opened the scoring at 9:23 of the second period.
Wayne Primeau started the play by winning a faceoff from Adam Oates. The Penguins won 27 of the first 50 faceoffs, continuing their improved work from the third period of Game 2. Marc Bergevin took the puck and steered it shot it low. Aleksey Morozov, Primeau and Stevens charged the net. Morozov, who played one of his more spirited games, outhustled Calle Johansson and tipped a pass to Stevens in front. Stevens slipped a quick shot past goaltender Olaf Kolzig for his second goal of the series.
'It was nice when I saw the net move back there,' Stevens said.
Neither team had gotten anything from its third line. The Capitals still don't have an even-strength goal in the series. They don't have a goal from anyone not named Peter Bondra.
'There's not much we can do,' Capitals winger Dainius Zubrus said. 'Overall, we're playing decent games. We're playing our style of hockey.'
That, some would argue, is the problem.
'We had a number of good chances - the best first period of the series so far,' Washington coach Ron Wilson said. 'You have to tip your hat to their goalie. He hasn't made a mistake in the series.'
When the third period hit, the Capitals were forced to loosen up, which allowed the Penguins' skill to take over. Alexei Kovalev made it 2-0 at 4:59, when he took a cross-ice pass from Robert Lang and drilled a wrist shot from the right dot over Kolzig's glove.
Jan Hrdina made it 3-0 at 7:37, when he rapped home a rebound after Jaromir Jagr danced around Sylvain Cote at the goal mouth.
Washington had a golden chance to tie the score 1-1 when it gained a 5-on-3 advantage for a minute, 21 seconds with 4:14 left in the second. But the Capitals managed just one shot, a Sergei Gonchar blast that Hedberg stopped with his right pad.
Mario Lemieux, Primeau and Bergevin killed off the first part of the 5-on-3. Martin Straka, Hrdina and Janne Laukkanen killed the second part.
'It doesn't matter what the other team is doing,' Wilson said. 'We didn't get the job done. We never put the puck in our most dangerous shooter's hands (Bondra).'
Bergevin and Laukkanen went to their knees to block cross-ice passes by Adam Oates.
'As soon as Oates - who is one of the best passers of all-time - tried to go across, we tried to take that play away,' Bergevin said. 'I could say I was lucky, because he hit my shin pad. That's what it takes to win - a couple of breaks.'
The Capitals carried the play for the first 30 minutes. Hedberg made several quality saves, including one on Bondra, who broke in alone at the 11-minute mark of the first period.
'I just tried to get out and cut down his angle,' Hedberg said. 'He showed me he was going to shoot the puck. I got it a little bit on my blocker.'
Capitals defenseman Brendan Witt blasted a shot off the post shortly before that. Lemieux had three shots in the first period, tripling his output in the series to that point.
Lemieux played a game-high 24 minutes, 39 seconds.
When Hedberg used his blocker to thwart Konowalchuk's backhander nine minutes into the second period, the crowd roared and waved white towels that were handed out at the gates. Stevens scored a half-minute later.
'He was unbelievable,' Boughner said of Hedberg. 'He was a monster back there.'
Actually, he was a moose.
