Penguins Fall To Capitals At Home

PITTSBURGH (AP) — The playoffs are still a month away. It just feels like they’ve already started for the Washington Capitals. Dominant at the start and disciplined at the finish, the Capitals pushed the Pittsburgh Penguins around 5-2 on Saturday to give them a little breathing room over their longtime rivals in the crowded race for the top spot in the Metropolitan Division. Nic Dowd scored early in the first period and again in the third to record the first multi-goal game of his career and Braden Holtby stopped 26 shots as first-place Washington built a 4-0 advantage en route to moving five points ahead of third-place Pittsburgh. Nicklas Backstrom and TJ Oshie also scored for the Capitals, who held the Penguins in check for long stretches while beating them for the second time in three tries this season. Washington captain Alexander Ovechkin failed to record a shot on goal in a regular season game against Pittsburgh for the first time in his long career but it hardly mattered. Dowd beat Matt Murray just 1:52 into the first period for his first goal in two months and added a shorthanded marker 34 seconds into the second to give the Capitals a commanding lead they never came close to squandering.