Pittsburgh's Fleury saves the day

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PITTSBURGH -- Perhaps Alex Ovechkin said it best with his overly simplified evaluation of the Capitals' most recent loss, Washington's eighth in its last 10 outings.

"When we don't score," the frustrated left wing said succinctly, "we can't win."

The Caps were shut out for only the third time this season and the first time in almost three months, losing 2-0 yesterday afternoon to the Pittsburgh Penguins in front of the 10th sellout in the last 11 games at Mellon Arena.

In a game featuring the two teams with perhaps the greatest collections of young offensive talent in the NHL, defense reigned supreme. The lone tally with a goalie in the net came, not from the Caps' young snipers Ovechkin or Alexander Semin, nor from Pittsburgh wunderkinds Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin, but from little-used Pittsburgh right wing Ronald Petrovicky.

Jordan Staal added an empty-net goal for the Penguins, who have won six in a row. Marc-Andre Fleury made 30 saves for his fourth shutout of the season and his second this week.

"We played well defensively and we played well offensively, but we didn't score," said Ovechkin, who had a 13-game point streak -- the longest in the NHL this season -- snapped. "I know we had a good performance, we played our system. It's just that sometimes we don't have luck.

"I was just really mad because I think it was a good game for us, but we lost."

Crosby and Ovechkin entered the game 1-2 in the league scoring race and the duo has been anointed by the league as the saviors of hockey in America. But their heavily hyped head-to-head matchup yesterday proved to be a dud.

Crosby had only two shots on goal and no points. Ovechkin was not credited with a shot on goal until the third period (though he disputed that statistic) and finished with three shots and a minus-2 rating. Ovechkin had scored in every game since New Year's Day and Crosby had at least a point in eight consecutive contests.

"I think both hockey clubs spent some time trying to shut down the young players and just did a good job defensively," Caps coach Glen Hanlon said. "Instead of being a 6-5 one-goal game, it was a 1-0 one-goal game."