Penguins hold serve at home, even series at two games apiece

It wasn't as easy as the Penguins would have liked, but they held off the Capitals in the third period and got a well-deserved win. In this game, it wasn't the big guns who found the scoresheet most often, but rather the secondary scorers and role players.

After Nicklas Backstrom put the Capitals up 1-0 on a slapshot just seconds after the opening faceoff, the Penguins went to work on rookie goaltender Simeon Varlamov.

Sergei Gonchar, who was later injured on a brutal knee to knee hit by Alex Ovechkin, broke through Washington's lackluster defensive line and ripped a slapper past Varlamov.

Billy Guerin and Ruslan Fedotenko followed with goals in the first period, putting the Penguins ahead 3-1 heading into intermission. Fedotenko's goal was particularly soft...not a commonality this series against Varlamov.

After Mike Green made a beautiful play to set up a Chris Clark tap in, the Pens finished it off.

Miroslav Satan made a nifty pass through John Erskine's legs that found Sidney Crosby on the tape. 87 proceeded to redirect it into the cage.

Milan Jurcina cut his team's 4-2 deficit in half with a slapper of his own while shorthanded. The goal should have never happened, but it was allowed by a missed interference call on Matt Bradley, who should have been whistled for powdering Kris Letang way after the puck was gone.

Not deterred by their stroke of bad luck, the Penguins once again gained insurance when Max Talbot beat Varlamov short side with a wrist shot as time winded down.

The Pens locked it down from there on in.

Notes-
-The Pens will need Gonchar back at some point. No Gonchar = No Stanley Cup.
-Hopefully, he'll be back for Game 5 on Saturday, but the Pens proved they can win without him.
-That was very dirty play by Ovechkin. At least he's remorseful, but that was a no class move.
-Varlamov finally looked human.
-The Pens have all the momentum now, and are playing with confidence.

Go Penguins.