Jake Guentzel on Thursday scored his 22nd goal 2 minutes, 11 seconds into overtime to lift the Pittsburgh Penguins to a 5-4 victory over the Washington Capitals in a result that clinched both teams a place in the playoffs.
Guentzel’s winner on a one-time redirection of John Marino’s pass came after Washington’s Tom Wilson forced overtime with 14.3 seconds to play.
The result, combined with the New York Islanders’ regulation 4-0 win over the New York Rangers, ensured that both teams would be among the Eastern Division’s four playoff teams.
Photo: AP
“We’re going to enjoy this one tonight,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “By no means are any of us satisfied — we understand there’s a lot of work to do here, but we’re going to take a deep breath tonight and enjoy it.”
Kasperi Kapanen scored his ninth and 10th goals of the season, Frederick Gaudreau added a goal on his return from injury and Zach Aston-Reese also scored for the Penguins, who have won five of their seven meetings with the Capitals.
Colton Sceviour and Jared McCann each had two assists.
T.J. Oshie scored his 18th goal for the Capitals, while Daniel Sprong added his fourth in three games. Dmitry Orlov also scored and had an assist for Washington before Wilson’s late leveler.
Nicklas Backstrom had three assists and Justin Schultz had two for the Capitals, who would not have clinched their spot with a loss in regulation.
“I think we shot ourselves in the foot a couple times, just with the puck, and it ended up in the back of the net,” Washington coach Peter Laviolette said. “I thought we were able to get some looks and I thought we were pretty good defensively, but the mistakes that we made, they cost us.”
Pittsburgh’s Tristan Jarry made 33 saves and Washington’s Vitek Vanecek had 30 stops.
Kapanen gave his team the lead midway through the third period. McCann spotted him breaking down the right with a cross-ice pass and with his defender beat, Kapanen lifted a shot over Vanecek’s blocker side into the top-right corner to make it 4-3.
Wilson leveled it on a six-on-five. Evgeny Kuznetsov tracked down his own miss, then spun and snuck a tight feed to him in front of the crease. Wilson lifted a shot over Jarry’s shoulder.
“It’s never good when you give up a goal like that within the last, how many seconds there, but you’ve just got to look at it [as] you’ve got a point, and you’ve got to try to get the next one. You’ve got to move by it pretty quick,” Guentzel said.
Elsewhere, the Lightning downed the Stars 3-0, the Blues tamed the Wild 5-4 in overtime, the Panthers edged the Blackhawks 4-3 in overtime and the Flames overcame the Oilers 3-1.
The Devils downed the Flyers 5-3, the Bruins blunted the Sabres 5-2, the Maple Leafs crushed the Canucks 4-1 and the Hurricanes blew away the Red Wings 3-1.
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