Stretching it out
Penguins defeat Capitals, extend win streak to 10
Posted: Tuesday February 16, 1999 01:27 AM
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Missed it by a foot: The Penguins' German Titov (9) slaps in his second goal over the skate of Olaf Kolzig. AP |
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- The Pittsburgh Penguins
finally stopped winning in overtime. That didn't mean they've stopped
winning. German Titov and Alexei Morozov scored twice and the
Penguins extended the second-longest winning streak in team history to 10
by beating the Washington
Capitals 7-3 Monday night. Jaromir Jagr, the NHL's leading
scorer with 85 points, had a goal and three assists and now has 25 points
during the Penguins' longest winning streak since they won a league-record
17 in a row on 1993. The streak is the second longest in the NHL
this season to Colorado's recent 12-game run and has enabled the Penguins
to close within two points of idle Philadelphia for the Atlantic Division
lead. When the streak started, the Penguins were tied for
seventh place in the overall Eastern Conference standings and weren't even
assured of making the playoffs. "This team has always been good,
has always had good players and great scorers like Mario [Lemieux] and
Jaromir and we're trying to keep that going,' the Penguins" Alexei Kovalev
said. "You need a lot of talent to do that [win 10 in a row]."
Kip Miller added his 10th goal in 11 games since moving onto Jagr's No. 1
line as the Penguins made certain they wouldn't have to go into overtime
for the fourth straight game by building a 5-1 lead. The three
consecutive overtime victories were an NHL record, but resulted partially
from the Penguins' 0-for-25 drought on the power play over five games. That
stopped with power-play goals by Miller and Jagr, and Titov added a
shorthanded goal. "The power play finally showed up; we talked a
lot about it and all of a sudden, we scored on it," Jagr said.
Peter Skudra stopped 31 shots for his eighth victory in his last nine
starts and seventh during the winning streak. Tom Barrasso missed the first
four games of the streak with a strained neck and is currently out with a
hip injury. The streak even brought out Penguins co-owner Roger
Marino for the first time in six weeks. The Penguins filed for bankruptcy
41/2 months ago, and Marino is in danger of losing his stake in the
team. The Capitals were worried more about losing their second
in a row after moving back into playoff contention by winning six
straight. "The reason we had a winning streak was we stuck to
our game plan, but they got a couple of early goals and we got away from
it," Capitals defenseman Joe Reekie said. "You give Jaromir Jagr time with
the puck and he's going to make great plays." Miller's goal at
18:51 of the first period made it 3-1 and ended Pittsburgh's power-play
drought. Jagr scored in the third period by deflecting in Kovalev's shot
for his 27th goal. "We had a good first period, which is a good
sign because human nature says if things are going good, you start to let
up a little bit," coach Kevin Constantine said. "We won some games in
overtime and you start to think that no matter what you do, you're going to
win." All but three of Miller's goals have come since
Constantine unexpectedly moved rookie Jan Hrdina and Miller up to Jagr's
line after the Penguins followed a six-game winning streak by losing five
of six games. Titov, who added two assists for a four-point
night, made it 5-1 by scoring twice in a span of just over five minutes in
the second period. Joe Juneau fell down while carrying the puck
just inside the blue line, allowing Titov to scoop it up and beat
goaltender Olaf Kolzig one-on-one on a backhander at 1:11.
Titov, who had only eight goals in the Penguins' first 51 games, also
scored at 6:17 following a sequence of nice passes, lifting the puck past
Kolzig for the Penguins' fifth goal in their first 14 shots. Washington
coach Ron Wilson then replaced Kolzig with Rick Tabaracci. "They
seemed to keep coming at us and we seemed to give them more and more room,"
Kolzig said. "They haven't won 10 in a row for nothing. I think we gave
them too much respect. You can't give them that much room to make
plays." Peter Bondra, Adam Oates and Juneau scored for
Washington.
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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