Marc-Andre Fleury keys Penguins win over Capitals 3 things to know
The have had an up-and-down start to the season, but they had a rather big up on Wednesday night against divisional rivals, the . The Pens skated away from the nations capital with a 3-1 win thanks in part to a stellar effort from goaltender and a tremendous response in the third period.The win put the Penguins 5-4-0 on the season and simultaneously halted the Caps current winning streak at five games. Washington is now 6-2-0 on the year.Heres a look at three keys from Wednesday nights divisional matchup.1. Marc-Andre Fleury, like he has been much of the year, stood tall for the PensComing https://www.athleticsjersey.com/bryce-love-jersey into the game, the Caps were averaging over four goals-per-game this season. Washington is a team that is always going to get its chances, no matter how soundly a team can play defensively. That puts a lot of pre sure on the goaltender and Fleury was pretty much lights out.The Pens netminder stopped 33 of the 34 shots he faced Wednesday. The only goal he gave up came off of a wacky deflection off one of his defensemen to trickle through. There were a few tense moments with the game knotted at 0-0 where the Caps were getting traffic in front and multiple chances, but Fleury continually shut the door. Its something hes been doing pretty much all season. As the only goaltender to see the net for the Pens this season, Fleury has allowed https://www.athleticsjersey.com/jay-higgins-jersey just 17 goals in his nine starts. His .937 save percentage is a big reason the Pens have five wins at all.2. Beau Bennetts goal was as big as it gets considering the situationAfter the Penguins and Caps had played through a scorele s 40 minutes, he pre sure was on for both clubs at the start of the third. Washington forward got a bit of a fluky goal just 1:28 into the final frame and that really could have deflated Pittsburgh.The opposite happened though. The Pens needed just 24 seconds to respond as Beau Bennett broke down the right wing, caught his own rebound and slipped the puck past to make it 1-1. That seemed to energize the https://www.athleticsjersey.com/lejond-cavazos-jersey Penguins just enough for that brief period of time. then scored le s than two minutes later to give Pittsburgh the 2-1 lead.Washington actually responded well, taking the bulk of the shot attempts in the latter half of the period, but thats where Fleury and the Penguins as a whole stood tall. Theres no doubt that Bennetts goal provided the spark.3. While the Penguins won, theyre still not inspiring much confidence offensively The Pens went through some rough stints in this game, including a second period in https://www.athleticsjersey.com/miles-battle-jersey which they were out-shot 14-4. The Capitals, meanwhile, controlled about 54 percent of the even-strength shot attempts for the game. That didnt help them win, obviously, but this has been part of the Penguins problem throughout the year. , the Penguins are currently posting a Corsi for percentage of 47.9 percent. That puts them in the lower-third https://www.athleticsjersey.com/kwantel-raines-jersey of the league in terms of 5-on-5 po se sion. When you have some of the games elite offensive players, this probably shouldnt be happening. was held off the scoresheet for the eighth time this season, too. Its hard to pinpoint what ails the superstar forward. It has often been suggested he needs to shoot more and that really never hurts. Its still probably not as easy a solution as that, though. Phil Ke sel did manage to connect for his fourth goal of the year, with picking up an a sist for his team-leading eighth point.Perhaps at some point things will start clicking for this team again, but the scoring woes have been pretty bizarre given the team on paper.