Penguins Rally, Stun Capitals in Opener

Oh ye of little faith.

The good Lord has admonished me in this manner on more than one occasion. Truth be told, in the wake of the Penguins’ stunning 3-2 comeback victory over Washington last night in Game 1 of their second-round series at Capital One Arena, I rebuked myself in similar fashion.

For the better part of the evening, I told anyone within earshot at Wright’s Gym that I didn’t like our chances. This was a different Capitals team, I warned. They were capable, motivated and hungry to boot.

Nor did anything that occurred during the first 42 minutes do anything to alter my opinion. Especially after Alex Ovechkin, the hated ‘Great Eight’, took a slick drop pass from Tom Wilson, burst through the neutral zone and ripped the puck past goalie Matt Murray just 28 seconds into the final frame to stake the Caps to a seemingly airtight 2-0 lead.

Instantly, I launched into a tirade over the slipshod defensive work of Kris Letang, who was late getting back on the play. Having chased away the few remaining gym members viewing the proceedings with me on our big screen TV, my thoughts turned inward.

Game, set and match, I fumed.

How foolish of me to doubt. Once again, with our backs to the proverbial wall, our boys rose from the would-be ashes like the back-to-back Stanley Cup champions they are. Leave it to Patric Hornqvist to get us started. In his inimitable lunch-pail style, the blonde Swedish hammer beat Braden Holtby on a beauty of a deflection at 2:59.

In an instant, the tenor of the game shifted. Visibly so in the resigned shrug of Holtby’s shoulders when he realized the puck had gotten past him. But subconsciously, too. You could sense the doubt seep into the Capitals’ suddenly tentative play.

The Pens didn’t need an invitation to pounce. Like the fearsome German blitzkrieg rolling into the Low Countries, they unleashed their quick-strike attack to devastating effect. Just past the five-minute mark, Sidney Crosby one-timed a bouncing diagonal pass from Jake Guentzel between Holtby’s pads to knot the score at 2-2. It was Sid’s seventh goal of the playoffs.

Not to be outdone, Guentzel soon followed suit. Flashing that magic wand of a stick he wields in true Harry Potter fashion, the postseason scoring sensation deflected a knuckling shot from Crosby past Holtby on the short side. The three goals in 4:49 left the Caps deflated…and me more than a little chastened for my early negativity.

I’ve never been happier to be wrong.

Hopes restored, I cheered our Pens through a final difficult stretch. Regaining their composure, the Caps rained shot after shot at Murray…10 over the final 10 minutes of play and 18 in all during the third period. The icy-cool netminder was never better, thwarting Grade-A scoring chances by Ovechkin and Evgeni Kuznetsov before making a sprawling, 10-bell pad save on Brett Connolly with 2:20 to play.

Was it a perfect win? Not by a longshot. But it was a perfect way to start the series.

Perfectly delicious, too.