Photo by Gregory Shamus/NHLI via Getty Images

The Washington Capitals fell to the Pittsburgh Penguins 6-2 on Sunday night at the CONSOL Energy Center.  The loss dropped the Caps record to 51-15-5 (107 points) . The win raised the Penguins record 40-24-8 (88 points). The Caps next head to Ottawa to take on the Senators on Tuesday night. Puck-drop is 7:30 PM.

Gregory Shamus/NHLI via Getty

The starting lines for the Caps:

Offensive Lines:
Ovechkin-Backstrom-Beagle
Burakovsky-Kuznetsov-Oshie
Chimera-Johansson-Williams
Winnik-Richards-Wilson

Defensive Pairs:
Orpik-Orlov
Alzner-Niskanen
Weber-Schmidt

Goalies:
Braden Holtby
Phillip Grubauer

Braden Holtby got the start in goal for the Caps. Marc Andre-Fleury got start for the Penguins, his second start in as many days. Michael Latta, Stanislav Galiev and Taylor Chorney were the healthy scratches.

QUICK TAKES
The Capitals got off to a furious start, however the team would revert to old ways midway through the first period, allowing an odd-man break-away that resulted in a goal for the Penguins. The Penguins would add another goal less than two minutes later. The Caps would find themselves in familiar waters at the end of the first period, trailing 2-0.  As has been recent tradition, the Caps would climb back into this one in the second period, scoring two goals to tie it up, but would yield a late goal to head to the locker room trailing 3-2 after two periods of play. The Penguins out-shot the Caps 22-12 through two periods of play. The Capitals would be unable to mount a comeback in this one, giving up three more goals to the Penguins in the third period, losing 6-2. Team stats for the game can be found here: Player stats for the game can be found here:  Faceoff summary can be found here: Photos for the game can be found here:

The Caps opened with a furious barrage in the first five minutes of play, with excellent offensive pressure and several good scoring chances. The Caps dominated the early forechecking game. However, it would be another odd-man break-away allowed by the Capitals that would start the scoring for Pittsburgh. The break-away was finished-off by Bryan Rust at 8:33 of the first period.

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The Penguins would quickly add another goal, this time by Trevor Daley at 9:59.

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The Capitals would then gather themselves to kill two subsequent Penguins power plays late in the first period. The period would end with the Penguins leading 2-0. The Penguins led in shots on goal, 9-6.

The Capitals would strike quickly in the second period with a tally on a break-away by Jason Chimera. The puck took a fortuitous bounce off Chimera’s head and into the net at 1:18 of the middle frame.

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Andre Burakovsky would tie the game on a short-handed goal at 15:12

Tom Wilson found Andre Burakovsky exiting the penalty box for the break-away.

But the Penguins got it right back, when Tom Kuhnhackl scored at 15:54, giving the Penguins a 3-2 lead.

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The period would end with the Penguins leading 3-2. The Penguins led in shots on goal 22-12.

A bit of a calmer start to the third period, however it wouldn’t be long before the Penguins would stretch the lead to 4-2 at the 3:46 mark, on a shot my Matt Cullen that trickled over the top of Holtby, down his back and into the net.

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The Penguins would make it 5-2 on a nice feed Sidney Crosby to Chris Kunitz at 7:18 of the final period. Holtby was pulled after this goal and replaced by Philipp Grubauer.

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The Penguins added a 6th goal by Justin Schultz at 13:05.

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The Penguins would win this one going away, 6-2.