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VANCOUVER Detroit Red Wings Hoodies Authentic , British Columbia (AP) — Casey DeSmith wanted another crack at the Vancouver Canucks, and he didn’t waste it.The backup goalie stopped 29 shots for his second career shutout, and the Pittsburgh Penguins got two goals apiece from Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin in beating the Canucks 5-0 on Saturday night.DeSmith lost the previous matchup between the teams Oct. 16 when Brock Boeser scored 34 seconds into overtime.“I don’t like losing and the way we lost, I felt the overtime goal I could have had, so that has kind of been on my mind since the last time and that was actually the last game I played,” DeSmith said. “It just so happened my next game was against these guys and that worked out well.”He got the nod over Matt Murray in the final game of Pittsburgh’s four-game trip to Canada and helped his team complete a sweep. The Penguins also won at Toronto, Edmonton and Calgary.DeSmith’s previous shutout came on April 26 against Ottawa.Phil Kessel also scored for Pittsburgh, which has just one loss in regulation this season.“They’ve got some world-class players that can score if you give them the chance,” Canucks coach Travis Green said.Jacob Markstrom stopped 30 shots for Vancouver. He kept the Canucks in the game with several clutch saves, including in the first period when he sprawled to turn away a rocket from Malkin with his left skate.Still, the goaltender wasn’t happy with his performance.“No, 5-0 on the board, you can’t be happy,” Markstrom said. “It’s a 60-minute game. You’ve got to play good all 60.”Pittsburgh opened the scoring midway through the second period, following a patient move by Olli Maatta. The defenseman had been waiting for a chance at the point and fired a shot that bounced off Markstrom’s pads. Kessel sneaked around the back of the net and found the rebound, banging it in for his seventh goal of the season, which leads the Penguins.Kessel played in his 255th consecutive game for Pittsburgh, surpassing Malkin for the franchise record.Crosby scored later in the period, collecting the puck in front and sending a backhand past Markstrom.Malkin’s goals came 59 seconds apart in the third. The Russian center also assisted on Kessel’s goal, and said the two have good chemistry.“When Phil plays good, I am playing good. When he is feeling it Detroit Red Wings Hats Authentic , I feel it, too. When he is lazy I am like, I can’t do it myself,” Malkin said.Malkin’s first goal came off a saucer pass from Daniel Sprong that he quickly buried in the side of the net. Less than a minute later, Malkin again found the puck in front and sliced it in past Markstrom. He has four goals and 11 assists in his last seven games.Crosby capped the scoring with just more than two minutes left, firing in a shot from the side of the net. The Penguins’ captain has five goals and three assists during a four-game scoring streak.NOTES: Boeser and 19-year-old rookie center Elias Pettersson returned from injuries for Vancouver. Boeser had missed two games with a groin injury, while Pettersson had been sidelined with a concussion since Oct. 13. Boeser has six points in 10 games, and Pettersson registered five goals and three assists in his first five NHL outings. Green had the pair skating together on a line with Nikolay Goldobin for much of the game. The trio combined for six shots. “I thought we came out fast and spent a lot of time in their zone,” Green said. “But at the end of the day, you’ve got to find a way to put a puck in the back of the net.”UP NEXTPenguins: Host the New York Islanders on Tuesday.Canucks: Continue their four-game homestand Monday against Minnesota. ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) Of all the ways the Washington Capitals have tried to win in the playoffs, none has been as effective as this.They pushed the pace with speed and skill when Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom were part of the ”Young Guns.” They made every game a coin flip with tight, Dale Hunter hockey. Each time, an early exit followed.This year is different. Suddenly, the Capitals are a suffocating defensive team that clogs the middle of the ice and makes even the fastest of opponents look slow.The Vegas Golden Knights are the latest to get frustrated by Washington’s neutral-zone pressure that took a toll on Columbus, Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay, paving the way for this run to the Stanley Cup Final. After cruising through three rounds with ease, nothing looks easy right now for Vegas because the Capitals have mastered the art of frustration, and are two wins away from hoisting the Cup for the first time.”Offensive teams have certain tendencies, certain routes that they take through the neutral zone, plays they like to make Custom Detroit Red Wings Jerseys , so if you can be on top of them and turn over some pucks, stifle them, make it hard for them to gain entry with possession, that frustrates skilled players,” defenseman Matt Niskanen said Sunday. ”If you can be in their face, just standing in the way, it’s amazing what that does.”It’s amazing the transformation the Capitals have made since coach Barry Trotz challenged players late in the regular season to embrace this approach. It was clear as early as Game 4 of the first round that the 1-1-3 trap in the neutral zone had the ability to essentially shut down the opposing attack, and since the first two playoff games Washington is 10-2 when scoring first.The Golden Knights have found how difficult it is to try to come back against the Capitals and need to adjust quickly down 2-1 in the Cup Final going into Game 4 Monday night. They have to make some adjustments before it’s too late.”Our guys who have a lot of speed can go back deeper, gather some speed,” winger David Perron said. ”Then the defensemen can try to freeze the first forechecker, kick it wide. These guys coming with speed, if they’re confronted, which they will be most times at the blue line, you can put it in and go on the forecheck. You can have guys hang close to the right wing or up top, and as the puck is coming your way, win the one-on-one battle with support. … We also have to try to not let them set up, so if there’s a turnover, a quick one, we can punt it up, go back on offense.”The Penguins and Lightning tried that and couldn’t crack the Capitals well enough to advance.”They’re really good at slowing you down,” Lightning forward J.T. Miller said during the Eastern Conference final. ”Right when you want to just chip it and go www.officialoilers.com , there’s a guy, there’s a wall there, and guys are ready to go back and get it on the other side. … It’s just their ability to stand up and make you force plays because it looks like there’s more ice than there is, and then all of a sudden they do a good job of staying in front and retrieving pucks.”Vegas is built on speed, but it’s hard to harness it if players can’t get blue line to blue line with the puck to create any offense. When the Capitals took a lead in Game 3, they went into their now-patented scheme.”It’s just kind of a group mentality to make life difficult on them,” winger Tom Wilson said. ”I think that’s when we’re at our best as a team is when we’re playing physical, we’re taking away time and space, making it difficult on their top guys.”That difficulty wears on a team, and Trotz said it’s noticeable when an opponent tries to change its game and manage the puck differently to counterbalance the trap. When it works effectively, not only does it limit changes against, but it creates the kind of odd-man rushes that have paced Washington’s offense this postseason.”It’s important to recognize moments when you can pressure, and we don’t want to get away from that, where we can send two guys and try to force teams into mistakes,” Niskanen said. ”If you can hold either the red line or the blue line with layers of support, you can force teams into turnovers, and we’ve done a good job of that.”—More Stanley Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/tag/StanleyCupFinals—