T.J. Oshie scored his third goal of the game at 9:33 in overtime to lead the Washington Capitals to a 4-3 victory over the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday night in Game 1 of their second-round playoff series.
Hats littered the ice when his wraparound barely got past Pittsburgh goalie Matt Murray, wedging between his stick and pad. That goal was reviewed and then upheld, a celebration that had been paused resuming with the official announcement.
"That's kind of the stuff you dream about when you're a kid playing in the backyard by yourself is scoring the OT winner and getting a hat trick," Oshie said. "It was awesome."
With the score tied through 40 minutes, Oshie got his second goal of the game less than four minutes into the third period. His backhand from the left faceoff circle got through Murray's legs to give the Capitals a 3-2 lead.
But the Penguins tied the score 8 minutes, 42 seconds into the period, as Nick Bonino's wrist shot deflected off Capitals defenseman Nate Schmidt and into Washington's net. The Capitals had their chances after that, but they couldn't capitalize. A power play with less than 10 minutes left in the game yielded just one shot, a blast by Matt Niskanen that looked like a goal, but went off the post.
With less than four minutes left in regulation, Alex Ovechkin had a breakaway chance, but it was stopped by Murray's pad. That set the stage for overtime.
Andre Burakovsky scored the Capitals' other goal, and Vezina Trophy finalist Braden Holtby made 42 saves.
Ben Lovejoy and Evgeni Malkin also scored for the Penguins, and Murray stopped 43 shots.
