Well. That escalated quickly.
After a Sidney Crosby breakaway tally, it seemed like the Caps and Penguins, on opposite ends of the standings, were headed towards another back-and-forth duel the two teams always manage to create regardless of either’s quality at the time. Pittsburgh had carried the majority of the play in the first period, with lots of sustained possessions in the offensive zone while the Caps could only muster up a few chances on the rush, not giving Pens goalie Alex Nedeljkovic too much to worry about.
One of those breaks would come a few minutes after Crosby’s goal, as Jakob Chychrun would find himself on the receiving end of a cross-ice pass from Pierre-Luc Dubois in the neutral zone, which gave him plenty of real estate to work his way around Noel Acciari and Vincent Desharnais, putting one past Nedeljkovic to put Washington back up by one:
This kicked off a run that would see the Caps put the game out of reach for Pittsburgh.