Pittsburgh Beats Washington in 4 OTs

It took 139 minutes 15 seconds to do it, but the Pittsburgh Penguins got a power-play goal from Petr Nedved to earn a 3-2 victory over Washington at Landover, Md., on Wednesday night and tied their first-round Eastern Conference playoff series at two games apiece.

The longest NHL game in 60 years featured the first penalty shot in playoff overtime and five goals, none of which was scored at even strength.

The longest NHL game ever was on March 24, 1936, when Detroit beat the Montreal Maroons, 1-0, at 16:30 of the sixth overtime. Only that and a game in 1933 were longer than Wednesday night’s outing in Landover.

In the end, the Penguin power play, at which they were the best in the league this season, converting 26%, was the difference.

With Jim Johnson sent off at 17:21 for hooking Jaromir Jagr to prevent a breakaway, Pittsburgh went on with a man advantage. Nedved’s sixth goal of the series came from the top of the left circle and beat Washington’s Olaf Kolzig.

Sergei Zubov and Jagr had assists on the play.

Washington had a good chance in the second overtime when Joe Juneau was awarded a penalty shot at 15:46 when Chris Tamer was called for knocking the net off its moorings to prevent a goal.

Juneau shot right into Pittsburgh backup goalie Ken Wregget, and the teams played on for another 43 minutes 29 seconds.

The Penguins played the final 100 minutes without leading scorer Mario Lemieux, who was given a game misconduct for punching Todd Krygier with 36.2 seconds left in the second period. Lemieux, who had 161 points in the regular season, received 19 minutes in penalties and failed to register a point for only the 10th time in 70 playoff games.

Michal Pivonka and Peter Bondra scored power-play goals for the Capitals, who led, 2-0, late in the second period.

Pittsburgh goalie Tom Barrasso, who stopped 38 shots in Game 3, left after the first period because of muscle spasms. He was replaced by Wregget, who had 54 saves, the most in franchise history.

The Capitals started backup goaltender Olaf Kolzig, who stopped a franchise-record 62 shots in place of Jim Carey, who has been ineffective in this series.

Down 2-0, the Penguins got even on goals by Jagr, scored short-handed, and Nedved, on a power play.

Florida 4, Boston 2--Jody Hull scored twice for the Panthers, who won in Boston and took a 3-0 lead over the Bruins in the series.

Though they have made the playoffs for the last 29 seasons, a professional sports high, the Bruins are 1-11 and have been outscored, 46-21, in their last 12 playoff games. They were eliminated in the first round in two of the last three seasons.