PITTSBURGH — PITTSBURGH - - Twice in the span of 48 hours, Washington Capitals checking line center David Steckel put himself in position to score in overtime.
The second time, however, went much better than the first.
One game after misfiring on an open net, Steckel scored what he called the biggest goal of his career, redirecting a shot 6 minutes, 22 seconds into extra time to lift the Capitals to a 5-4 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins, force a Game 7 and add a chapter to one of the most memorable playoff series in recent memory.
"I was really down after" missing the net in Game 5, said Steckel, who has three goals in the playoffs after recording only eight in the regular season. "I was right there, and then to lose the game two minutes after that. I told myself if I had the chance to do it again, I wouldn't miss."
The winning play began with Steckel breaking Maxime Talbot's stick on a faceoff and then racing to the net, where he redirected a shot by Brooks Laich around Penguins goaltender Marc Andre Fleury to stun the white-towel-waving capacity crowd at Mellon Arena and improve the Capitals' record to 6-1 when facing elimination under coach Bruce Boudreau.
"He's a big-game guy," Boudreau said of Steckel.
The Capitals now have the chance advance to the Eastern Conference finals with a win on Wednesday at Verizon Center and, perhaps just as important, dispense with some demons that have been haunting this franchise for nearly two decades. A win would also give Washington only its second series victory over Pittsburgh in eight meetings.
Steckel got the winner, but several Capitals deserved plenty of credit for their contributions. Viktor Kozlov picked up his first goals (two) of the series, Alexander Semin ended a six-game goal drought and rookie goaltender Simeon Varlamov made 38 saves, including 17 in a first period in which the Penguins might have buried Washington without him.
"Like I said before the game, it's time for everyone to play their hardest," said Alex Ovechkin, who had three assists. "This is the best group of guys, they never give up. It doesn't matter who scores, me, Kozzie, Stecks in overtime, what matters is we win the game and we go back to our building and our fans."
Victory, though, was never a sure thing for either team in a game that had two lead changes in the third period.
