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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Goalie Ron Tugnutt swung his stick flush into Richard Zednik's thigh, opening the way for the Washington Capitals to stay alive in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
|  | | Pittsburgh's Matthew Barnaby takes a glove in the chin from Rob Zettler as tempers flared in the third period. |
Tugnutt's slashing penalty behind the net led to rookie Jeff Halpern's game-winning, power-play goal with 7:05 to play as the Capitals prevented a series sweep with a 3-2 victory over the
Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday night.
"I retaliated," Tugnutt said. "I'm not happy that I did it,
but I'm going to put it behind me and look forward to the next
game. He just slashed me over the elbow, and I just kind of gave
him a shot back and hit his pads -- and he goes down like he'd been
shot."
Tugnutt had a rough night, giving up two rebounds goals and
surviving two disallowed goals as his consistent failure to make
clean saves finally cost the Penguins.
Tugnutt had survived the Capitals' assaults despite similar play in the first three games, but this time Chris Simon, Steve Konowalchuk and Halpern all scored.
"Two of our goals were rebounds we hadn't gotten to earlier in
the series," Washington coach Ron Wilson said. "You're not going
to score on rebounds unless you have people grinding to the net."
Halpern got the game-winner by converting the rebound off Ken
Klee's shot from the slot, sending Capitals part-owner Michael
Jordan and the sellout crowd to their feet cheering for the
Jordan-like heroics.
Under the unusual schedule for the series, Friday's Game 5 will
also be held at Washington's MCI Center. The Capitals are trying to
become only the third team in NHL history to rally from 3-0 down to
win a series.
"We didn't have a choice -- if we weren't positive, we'd be
playing golf tomorrow," Washington goalie Olaf Kolzig said. "We
didn't want the whole season of hard work to go down the tubes."
Jaromir Jagr and John Slaney scored for the Penguins, who led
2-1 after the first period. According to Jagr, that's when his
teammates got complacent. Pittsburgh was outshot 23-13 the rest of
the game.
"We just kind of relaxed," Jagr said. "Probably we relaxed too early. We were up 2-1 and I thought you got everything under control, they felt like it's over. Now they won it, they can smell the chance and that's what we didn't want to happen.
"You've got to have that killing instinct, and we just didn't
have it tonight. Or this team doesn't have it. This team doesn't
know how to do it. We've got to learn."
The Penguins were missing center Jan Hrdina, who has four goals and three assists in the series and is day-to-day with a muscle strain. The Capitals played without defenseman Brendan Witt, who
has a strained groin.
For a change, Washington didn't allow Pittsburgh to play its
finesse, open-ice game, except perhaps on Jagr's wraparound goal
with 21 seconds left in the first period. The Penguins dumped and
chased more than they wanted.
"We were more organized in the neutral zone," Wilson said.
"No team is going to dump the puck if it's in a 3-on-2 or 2-on-1
situation. We pretty much cut down on those types of outnumbered
attacks."
With the score tied 2-2 with 12:22 remaining, the Capitals had a
goal disallowed when the video replay official ruled that Joe Sacco
played the puck with a high stick. Terry Yake took the original
shot, which popped high into the air off Tugnutt's glove. Sacco
batted it away from Tugnutt, and Trent Whitfield poked the puck in
the net.
The first period was almost a game in itself -- a long, eventful and sometimes painful frame that took nearly an hour to play. The Capitals failed to score on two breakaways and failed even to get a shot off during a 44-second 5-on-3 power play. The Penguins kept giving the puck away in their own zone and were whistled for too many men on the ice. Meanwhile, Tugnutt kept things exciting by dropping nearly every save to create one mad crease scramble after another.
Tugnutt stopped Calle Johansson on a short-handed breakaway two minutes into the game, then blocked Peter Bondra's solo run 3½
minutes later. The save wasn't clean, however, and Zednik kicked
the puck across the goal line as he crashed into the net. The red
light went on, but officials ruled no goal because of an early
whistle.
The Capitals wasted a 5-on-4 followed by a 5-on-3 -- 86 total
seconds -- without taking a shot, then scored their first
short-handed goal at home all season. It came on a 2-on-1 that
nearly went haywire: Konowalchuk had to do a 360-degree spin after
taking Halpern's pass before getting off a shot that went between
Tugnutt's legs and barely trickled into the net at 9:57. The
Capitals have scored the first goal three games in a row.
Just 21 seconds later, the Penguins tied it on the power play.
Slaney's slap shot deflected off defenseman Ken Klee's stick,
throwing off Kolzig and beating him glove side.
After Jagr made it 2-1, the Capitals finally got a rebound goal
off Tugnutt in the second period. Tugnutt stopped Johansson's slap
shot with his midsection, but Simon was there to convert at the
13:39 mark.
The Capitals outshot the Penguins 37-23.
"The favorite role has switched to Pittsburgh because they've
got a 3-1 lead," Wilson said. "They're supposed to win the series
now. We're underdogs and we're relaxed."
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ALSO SEE
NHL Scoreboard
Pittsburgh Clubhouse
Washington Clubhouse
RECAPS
Ottawa 2
Toronto 1
Washington 3
Pittsburgh 2
Detroit 3
Los Angeles 0
Phoenix 3
Colorado 2
San Jose 3
St. Louis 2
AUDIO/VIDEO
 Jeff Halpern scores the game-winner.
avi: 823 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Chris Simons crashes the net and scores.
avi: 501 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Jaromir Jagr scores on the wraparound.
avi: 590 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Steve Konowalchuk makes the nice move and scores.
avi: 596 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
John Slaney beats Olaf Kolzig.
avi: 436 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
 Jaromir Jagr thinks the Pens should have gone for the kill.
wav: 219 k
RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
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