The surging Pittsburgh Penguins, however, did more than delay the inevitable on Sunday night. They served notice Washington’s path through the Eastern Conference might not be as easy as it might have looked a month ago.
Rookie Tom Kuhnhackl had a goal and two assists on his way to a career-best three points as the Penguins denied the Capitals a chance to lock up the division title with a dominant 6-2 victory.
Matt Cullen, Trevor Daley, Justin Schultz, Chris Kunitz and Bryan Rust also scored for Pittsburgh. Sidney Crosby picked up two assists to push his scoring streak to 12 games as the Penguins won their sixth straight, five of them without star center Evgeni Malkin. Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 16 shots to move past the New York Rangers — by virtue of a tiebreaker — and into second place behind Washington in the Metropolitan.
“The start was a little slow the first 5 minutes but after that we really settled in,” Crosby said. “Had a lot of jump, a lot of desperation.”
Washington could have clinched the franchise’s ninth division crown with two points but instead gave up a season-high six goals. Braden Holtby finished with 21 saves before being pulled in the third. Jason Chimera and Andre Burakovsky scored for the Capitals but Washington collapsed in the third period while suffering their worst loss since a 5-0 setback against San Jose in the second game of the season.
“They were in playoff mode, they wanted it more,” Capitals coach Barry Trotz said. “We got exactly what we deserved.”
The Ducks had a 3-2 overtime win over the Jets, Anaheim getting its 40th win of the season and moving four points behind the Los Angeles Kings for first place in the Pacific Division.
Jakob Silfverberg scored at 4:01 of overtime to lift Anaheim past Winnipeg, his 13th goal of the season coming came as he was left all alone in front of Jets goalie Michael Hutchinson, who made a glove save on the first attempt but couldn’t corral the rebound.
At Newark, Devante Smith-Pelly scored the tiebreaking goal 8:38 into the third period and Scott Wedgewood made 27 saves in his NHL debut to lead New Jersey to a 2-1 win over the Blue Jackets.
At Chicago, Charlie Coyle scored the only goal in the shootout as Minnesota beat Chicago for the fourth time in four meetings this season.
Colorado got its third straight win with 3-2 result against the Oilers at Edmonton, and remained one point ahead of Minnesota for the second and final wild-card spot in the Western Conference. Matt Hendricks and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored for Edmonton, which was mathematically eliminated from playoff contention for the 10th consecutive year.
The Sharks beat the Coyotes 3-0 for a season-high fourth straight home win, moving to the brink of clinching a playoff spot.
After missing the postseason last year for the first time since 2003, San Jose can seal up a bid this season with one more victory.
At Montreal, the Flames beat the Canadiens 4-1, with Sean Monahan having two goals and an assist.
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