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Little room for error Capitals keeping it close, but Penguins still have edge
Posted: Thursday April 20, 2000 07:31 PM
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Throw out the first game, and the Pittsburgh-Washington playoff series is as close as advertised. Neither team can dictate its style of play for long, and the result has been three exhausting one-goal games. But the first game, a 7-0 Penguins rout when the Capitals totally ignored their game plan, counts too, leaving the Penguins, despite losing Game 4, still in command with a 3-1 series lead and another chance to wrap things up Friday night at the MCI Center. "Everybody's happy," defenseman Bob Boughner said Thursday as Neil Diamond blared on the radio and a business and stocks channel played on the television in the Penguins locker room. "Smiles are back on the faces. It's a 3-1 lead, and they've got to beat us three straight. "Before the series started, I don't think anybody told you we were going to sweep these guys. Just because we're up 3-1 doesn't mean we've dominated the series. We didn't think it was going to be a sweep, and we didn't think it was going to be easy." So little has separated the teams that the absence of Penguins center Jan Hrdina could've been the difference in the Capitals' 3-2 victory Wednesday night. Hrdina has four goals and three assists in the series, but a muscle strain kept him out of Game 4 and will sideline him for Game 5 as well. Coach Herb Brooks said he will shuffle his lines again to try to achieve a more balanced attack without Hrdina. Forward Rene Corbet, yet to play in the series because of a bruised shoulder, could see his first action. Without Hrdina, who won 61 percent of his faceoffs in the first three games, the Capitals dominated the draw. Adam Oates won an astounding 25 of 31 faceoffs in Game 4. Washington won 68 percent of the faceoffs in the game. The Penguins led 2-1 after the first period, and Jaromir Jagr said his teammates lack the "killer instinct" to put the Capitals away. Brooks more or less agreed. "We talked about their situation, their mental state and everything else," Brooks said. "And we didn't counter it." The seventh-seeded Penguins have more than enough reasons to want to end the series Friday. A 3-1 lead is comfortable, but 3-2 is definitely not secure against the Eastern Conference's No. 2 seed. Plus, the Pens want the extra rest before playing in the next round. "We got the message that they're not quitting," right wing Rob Brown said. "We want to close it out. We don't want to go any further because anything can happen." The Capitals, meanwhile, had an optional workout that drew only a dozen or so skaters. Wednesday night's game was long and emotional, with two disallowed goals before rookie Jeff Halpern's power-play game-winner with 7:05 to play. "We're going to have to do the same thing and continue to play the same way that we've played all year," coach Ron Wilson said. "We can't allow the Jagrs and Kovalevs open ice. We haven't changed our game. We're not out there to trade chance for chance with the Penguins." The Capitals are attempting to become only the third team in NHL history to rally from 3-0 down to win a series. If the last three games are any indication, there'll be more nail-biters to come if they pull it off. "They played the same," defenseman Peter Popovic said. "In Game 4, they had the lucky bounces that we probably had in Games 2 and 3."
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