Penguins, Capitals Clash in Round Two

Buckle your seat belts, ladies and gents. The real fun’s about to begin.

Starting on Thursday evening in Washington, the Penguins take on the Capitals in what promises to be a pulsating rematch of their second-round series from a year ago.

For those with short memories, the black and gold dashed past the Caps in six games during their march to the Stanley Cup last spring, including overtime victories in Games 4 and 6.

The run-up to the series is eerily similar. Once again, the Pens defeated a first-round foe—this time the bristling Columbus Blue Jackets—in five games. It took the Capitals six games to beat back the challenge of Mike Babcock’s energetic, young Maple Leafs. The defending Presidents’ Trophy winners required the same number of games to vanquish Philadelphia a year ago.

The setup is virtually the same, too. By virtue of their first-place finish in the Metro, the Caps enjoy home-ice advantage. Here’s the schedule:

Game	Date	Day	Location	Time
1	April 27	Thursday	Washington	7:30 PM
2	April 29	Saturday	Washington	8:00 PM
3	May 1	Monday	Pittsburgh	7:30 PM
4	May 3	Wednesday	Pittsburgh	7:30 PM
5*	May 6	Saturday	Washington	TBD
6*	May 8	Monday	Pittsburgh	TBD
7*	May 10	Wednesday	Washington	TBD
* If necessary

It’s the 10th postseason clash between the bitter rivals. Remarkably, the Pens have won eight of the previous nine meetings. In fact, each time the locals have won a Cup, they’ve used Washington as a stepping stone.

During the regular season, the Caps throttled the Pens by a combined 12-3 in their two victories at the Verizon Center. Our guys prevailed twice at PPG Paints Arena, first in a season-opening shootout on October 13 and again in a wild 8-7 tilt on January 16, courtesy of Conor Sheary’s overtime winner.

More to come.

Puckpourri

Here’s how the other Round Two series shape up. The Rangers meet the Senators in the East. Out West, it’s the Blues-Predators and Ducks-Oilers.

Boston, Calgary, Chicago, Columbus, Minnesota, Montreal, San Jose and Toronto were sent packing in Round One.

Forward Chris Kunitz returned to practice Sunday morning in a non-contact capacity, according to Jonathan Bombulie of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “Kuny’s” been out since suffering a lower-body injury against the Rangers on March 31.

Defenseman Chad Ruhwedel also skated with no contact. He’s recovering from an upper-body injury sustained on April 6.

Goaltender Matt Murray has resumed off-ice conditioning activities, but has yet to practice since removing himself from warmups prior to the playoff opener. Winger Carl Hagelin (lower-body injury) didn’t practice, either. No timetable has been set for their returns.

Forwards Josh Archibald and Tom Sestito, along with defenseman Cameron Gaunce, returned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton during the lull in the schedule. Archibald (2) and Sestito combined for three goals to help propel the Baby Pens to a 6-5 overtime victory over the Providence Bruins, knotting the series at 1-1. Derrick Pouliot scored the winner at 7:49 of OT.