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Penguins win in overtime

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The Associated Press

Published: May 10, 2009

WASHINGTON - When it comes to the Washington Capitals, the Pittsburgh Penguins excel at playing from behind. They've done it so well they finally have the lead.

The Penguins overcame a third-period deficit, survived Alex Ovechkin's tying goal late in regulation, then won the game on Evgeni Malkin's power-play tally 3:28 into overtime Saturday night for a 4-3 victory in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.

Jordan Staal, Ruslan Fedotenko and Matt Cooke also scored, and Marc-Andre Fleury made 28 saves for the Penguins, who have won three straight after dropping the first two games of the series.

The winning goal came with one second remaining in the advantage. Defenseman Milan Jurcina had been sent to the box for tripping Malkin to stop a possible breakaway. Malkin's winning shot deflected off the stick of defenseman Tom Poti and past rookie goalie Simeon Varlamov, giving the Penguins a chance to close out the series Monday at Pittsburgh.

Although the series was tied at 2, there was little debate the Penguins had played better. Sidney Crosby's team dominated a 5-3 victory Friday night in Game 4, and - thanks to back-to-back games caused by next week's Yanni concert in Pittsburgh - the young Capitals come home with little time to regroup from two fragile performances.

Second Period-1, Pittsburgh, Staal 1 (Satan, Orpik), 5:17. 2, Washington, Ovechkin 9 (Poti), 6:16. 3, Washington, Backstrom 3 (Fedorov, Ovechkin), 14:35 (pp).

Third Period-4, Pittsburgh, Fedotenko 4 (Malkin, Letang), :51. 5, Pittsburgh, Cooke 1 (Kennedy, Staal), 6:27. 6, Washington, Ovechkin 10 (Backstrom, Green), 15:52.

First Overtime-7, Pittsburgh, Malkin 6 (Kunitz), 3:28 (pp).

Shots on Goal-Pittsburgh 11-14-14-3-42. Washington 12-10-9-0-31. Goalies-Pittsburgh, Fleury. Washington, Varlamov. A-18,277 (18,277). T-2:43.

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