Bonino's OT goal pushes Penguins past Capitals, into conference finals
Two words — “Just play” — came up again and again when Penguins coach Mike Sullivan and his players discussed how they wanted to handle the adversity that arose throughout their second-round series with Washington.
They echoed that message, one they had printed on T-shirts for the playoffs, after Capitals forward Tom Wilson hobbled Conor Sheary with a knee-to-knee hit in Game 1 and defenseman Brooks Orpik leveled Olli Maatta with a late headshot in Game 2.
Ditto after Kris Letang sat out Game 4 because of a one-game suspension for his high hit on Marcus Johansson in Game 3.
The refrain remained the same after the media buzzed about whether to start Matt Murray or Marc-Andre Fleury in net and why stars Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin scored so rarely ahead of Game 6.
The Penguins, whose recent postseasons often ended when they lost their cool, followed the mantra to put away Washington with a 4-3 overtime win in Game 6 on Tuesday at Consol Energy Center, but not before they squandered a three-goal lead in the final 22 minutes of regulation. Nick Bonino buried a rebound on a Carl Hagelin shot six minutes and 32 seconds into the extra period.
“What I loved about this group is their resilience,” Sullivan said. “When we got to the overtime, we just talked to them in between periods about taking a deep breath. You can't change what just happened. You've got to let it go, and you've just got to play. These guys, to their credit, did an amazing job of not allowing any sort of ebbs and flows of the game (to affect them), and they might've been challenged the most all year tonight in the third period.”
The win improved their record when leading after two periods to 45-0-0.
They'll meet Tampa Bay in the Eastern Conference finals.
Just minutes before Bonino ended it, Capitals center Jay Beagle kept his team alive when he blocked Patric Hornqvist's shot while sliding into the net.
“We thought Horny had one, and we were halfway over the bench,” Bonino said. “It didn't work out like that. But we were able to get it in the next couple shifts. ... We were confident that if we could stay out of the box and do the right things, we'd get that goal.”
Orpik, at the heart of the series' ugliest moment, ended up as a central character in the sequence that created the need for an epic Capitals rally.
Back in the lineup after serving his three-game suspension for the Maatta hit, the former Penguins blue liner caught Hornqvist in the mouth with a high stick that drew blood and headed to the penalty box with a double minor.
Granted four minutes of power- play time, the Penguins needed just 1:13 to score twice. The outburst changed the perception of a man-advantage unit that converted just 1 of 16 opportunities through Game 5.
Phil Kessel, who opened the scoring with a wrist shot from the left wing five minutes into the first period, extended the Penguins' lead to 2-0 when he carried a puck into traffic and beat goalie Braden Holtby to the far post on the power play.
Hagelin redirected a shot from Maatta past Holtby just 33 seconds later.
“We had a good start to the series, and we were quiet the last couple of games,” Bonino said of him and his linemates. “We wanted to come out tonight and play hard. Phil plays well in big games. Same with Haggy.”
Washington's chance to answer with their first power-play opportunity fell flat — at one point literally. Alex Ovechkin, whose wicked one-timer ability factored into two of the Capitals' three goals in Game 5, ended up on his belly after he whiffed at the left faceoff circle on a clever pass from behind the Penguins' net.
But Ovechkin, who finished with two power-play assists, and his cohorts capitalized on two of their next three opportunities. T.J. Oshie buried a one-timer from the slot to cut the Penguins' lead to 3-1 with 1:30 left in the second period. John Carlson fired a game-tying five-on-three goal just five minutes after an even-strength tally from Justin Williams.
“It really applies to us,” Ian Cole, who logged a team-high 5:43 of short-handed ice time, said of the “Just play” motto. “There's always a lot of noise around this team. You win a game, it's positive. You lose a game, it's negative. It's all over the place. It's up and down. So I think the ability to just block that out, block out the past, block out what already happened and just get out there and play your next shift, play your next period, refocus, get back out there and take it to him, that's something that we really take to heart.”
Carlson's goal came after an improbable stretch in which the Penguins received three straight delay-of-game penalties, just 2:02 apart, for sending pucks over the boards in the defensive zone. Cole and Bonino, both penalty killers, sat in the box when Carlson snapped a shot by Murray.
“If you play this late into the year, there's going to be adversity and you've got to overcome it,” Bonino said. “We know we play Tampa next. They've done the same thing. They're playing without two or three of their best players. It's going to be a good series.”
Bill West is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at wwest@tribweb.com or via Twitter @BWest_Trib.
