The Pens jumped out to a 1-0 lead on a Joey Mullen goal at 15:38 of the first period but had to kill off a Washington 5-on-3 advantage for 1:34 at the beginning of the second. That they did, and shortly after it had ended, Ron Francis put the Pens up 2-0 – a hard blow for the Caps to take.
Dave Tippett got one back for the Capitals before the second period ended, but Jaromir Jagr provided some much-needed insurance at 7:53 when he scored on a highlight-reel rush from centre ice. Mark Recchi added an empty-netter and the party was on.
The Penguins had won two playoff series for the first time in their history and would now advance to the Wales Conference Final.
“We’ve really put things together and made a tremendous turnaround from last year. And we’ve got a chance to go far,” said goalie Tom Barrasso, who turned in another brick-wall performance, stopping 33 of 34 Washington shots.
The Penguins were half-way to the Stanley Cup.
“We’ve climbed two mountains already,” said coach Bob Johnson. “But we’ve got two more mountains to climb.”
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