Ice Hockey: Russian rivals clash in NHL
Published 10 March, 2008, 17:38
Sunday Night in the NHL saw the battle of the Russian heavy hitters, with Evgeny Malkin's Pittsburg Penguins making the short journey east to take on Alexandr Ovechkin and his Washington Capitals. But the star pair was somewhat overshadowed by other players.
Politicians on Capitol Hill took a day off as the Penguins rolled into town to take on the Capitals.
Brooks Laich opened the scoring to put Washington 1-0 up in the second period.
A minute was all it took for the Pengiuns to tie the score. Evgeny Malkin and Jeff Taffe set up Czech Pyotr Sykora for the equalizer.
Reigning league MVP (most valuable player), Sidney Crosby, snuck in another one for Pittsburgh towards the end of the period.
But the Capitals leveled matters once again, Semin this time getting his name on the score sheet. He fired into the net with less than 15 seconds to go in the period to make it 2-all.
And Crosby had Washington's Niclas Basktrom to thank for his brace as the rookie accidentally scored into his own net. The goal was then credited to the Canadian.
That was followed by an empty net goal by Jordan Staal late in the third. The final score was 4-2 to Pittsburg.
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