Bonino's tiebreaking goal helps Penguins escape Capitals with 3-2 win in Game 1

WASHINGTON — Last season, Nick Bonino drove the final nail into the Washington Capitals, scoring the overtime winner for the Penguins in a clinching Game 6 of a second-round series.

On Thursday night, he was hammering again.

Bonino broke a third-period tie with his second goal of the playoffs, leading the Penguins to a 3-2 victory in Game 1 of an Eastern Conference semifinals series.

Game 2 will be played Saturday night in Washington.

"It's big," Bonino said. "We lost (Game 1) last year. We know you're behind the 8 ball when that happens. To steal a game in their rink and effectively get home ice back in the series, that's huge."

Bonino's goal came after the Capitals rallied back from two goals down to forge a 2-2 tie.

The play was a perfect example of the bedrock principle the Penguins used to claim the Stanley Cup last season — speed, in all its forms, turning a puck in the defensive zone into a scoring chance in no time flat.

The play started when Justin Schultz gathered a puck behind his own net and quickly passed to his defense partner, Ian Cole, in the corner.

While that was going on, Bonino and winger Scott Wilson saw their teammates had control of the puck, cut off their forechecking routes and headed back up the ice.

Cole zipped a 110-foot pass up the boards to Wilson at the far blue line. Wilson quickly dished to the middle of the ice, where Bonino was charging to the net. He picked up the puck and beat goalie Braden Holtby to the blocker side.

"I haven't had a breakaway in I don't know how long," Bonino said. "I just tried to get it on net, and it found a hole there."

No one in the locker room seemed surprised Bonino played the hero. In last season's playoffs, he was a legitimate Conn Smythe Trophy contender with 18 points in 24 games.

"I just think Bones is a guy that's a high-stakes player," coach Mike Sullivan said. "He brings his best game when the games are most important."

Another player who fits that description, of course, is Sidney Crosby.

In dramatic fashion, Crosby made sure the Penguins wouldn't be plagued by the slow starts that hurt them in the Columbus series by scoring two goals in a span of 52 seconds in the opening moments of the second period.

On his first shift of the period, he finished off a pass from Jake Guentzel on a two-on-one. On his second shift, Patric Hornqvist corralled the rebound of an Olli Maatta point shot and shuffled it over to Crosby in the right faceoff circle for a goal.

"That's how it goes sometimes," Crosby said. "You don't get some for a while and then they come in bunches."

After the Penguins took a 2-0 lead, the Capitals fired back with a vengeance.

Alex Ovechkin scored late in the second period, counter-attacking after a big hit by Washington defenseman John Carlson on Evgeni Malkin. Former Penguins defenseman Matt Niskanen found a wide-open Evgeny Kuznetsov on the left wing for the tying goal eight minutes into the third.

By the time the game was over, the Capitals had an 83-41 edge in shot attempts.

"Listen, Washington's a real good hockey team," Sullivan said. "They've got real good players. This is two good teams going at it. There are going to be times where they come at us. There are going to be times we come at them. That's what we expect."

Washington's surge culminated in a wild scramble, fueled by Ovechkin and Carlson, in front of Marc-Andre Fleury with three minutes left in the game. Somehow, the puck stayed out of the net.

"I couldn't find it. I couldn't see it. My stick flew somewhere," Fleury said. "A couple of times, it popped out of the pile. I tried to put a pad on it. It was fun. It was a fun way to come out on top."

Jonathan Bombulie is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at jbombulie@tribweb.com or via Twitter at @BombulieTrib.