NHL’s dream matchup ended with a thud as Sidney Crosby and co. dusted off the Capitals last night to advance to the Eastern Conference finals.

Pittsburgh 6 @ Washington 2 – This is one of the most exciting series going on right now. It was filled with big moments and a lot of game changers. In fact, most of the games in this series were quite close, until the massive blowout by the Penguins last night. The Penguins were either simply more prepared or more willing to win as they constantly won the puck battles along the boards and dominated the game in the Washington zone. Interestingly, they managed to do all that without taking a single penalty in the game.

Sidney Crosby’s 2 goals and 1 assist gives him a total of 13 points in the series, just one shy of Ovechkin’s 14 points. The two skilled players were evenly matched, but in the end, Crosby gets to march forward while Ovechkin stays behind. In addition to Crosby’s strong presence, Craig Adams, Bill Guerin, Kris Letang and Jordan Staal added a goal each. Meanwhile Ovechkin and Laich scored the only two Washington goals for the night. Marc-Andre Fleury did not have a stellar game, but it was good enough to move forward as he stopped 19 of 21 shots. It was a lot better than the unusual lackluster performance from Simeon Varlamov, who made 14 of 18 saves before being booted from the net. Jose Theodore did not fair much better as he deflected 10 of 12 shots.

Pittsburgh set the tone early in the game with Marc-Andre Fleury denying Ovechkin of a goal during a breakaway early in the game. Crosby started the scoring party with a powerplay goal with a little over 7 minutes to go. Craig Adams scored a key goal 8 seconds after Crosby’s goal to push the momentum forward and allow the Penguins to dominate the game.

With the victory, the Penguins can stick around for another round of playoff hockey. Boston and Carolina are engaged in a battle to win game 7 of their series tonight. The winner will go on and face a very pumped Pittsburgh team that just put out Ovechkin’s bonfire.
Pittsburgh wins the series 4-3

Three Stars of the Night:
1. Sidney Crosby (Pittsburgh)
2. Evgeni Malkin (Pittsburgh)
3. Craig Adams (Pittsburgh)

Wednesday’s Schedule:
Anaheim at Detroit – Series tied 3-3 (TV: CBC, Versus)
Carolina at Boston – Series tied 3-3 (TV: TSN, Versus)