There are many reasons why the Washington Capitals find themselves once again facing elimination against the Pittsburgh Penguins, down 3-1 in this series.
Among those reasons has been a lack of depth scoring from certain players in their lineup.
That includes 22-year-old Andre Burakovsky, who hadn’t scored a goal in this series or this post-season prior to Saturday, and hadn’t recorded a point in his last six games, dating back to the opening round versus Toronto.
Burakovsky finally snapped his scoring drought, beating Marc-Andre Fleury with a quick wrist shot on the blocker side. Nice shot, but an even better toe-drag move -- talk about patience -- to set up the shot.
The Capitals needed that goal, too.
Needing a win to extend the series back to Pittsburgh, the Capitals trailed the Penguins 1-0 until the Burakovsky goal with 30 seconds remaining in the period, despite shot totals and puck possession once again favoring Washington.