WASHINGTON

Marc-Andre Fleury thanked his stick and flashed a smile so wide it could be seen through his mask.

This was vintage Fleury, and he has the Pittsburgh Penguins one step closer to another Stanley Cup.

Fleury stopped all 29 shots in a turn-back-the-clock performance to shut out the Washington Capitals 2-0 in Game 7 on Wednesday night, sending Pittsburgh to the Eastern Conference finals to face the Ottawa Senators.

This was the Fleury who backstopped the Penguins to the Cup in 2009 and was almost unbeatable early in the second-round series, and his return was all they needed to eliminate the Presidents’ Trophy winners in a meeting of the NHL’s top two teams.

“We’re not in this position moving on if he doesn’t play the way he did,” said captain Sidney Crosby, who assisted on Bryan Rust’s opening goal. “There were times where they had sustained pressure throughout games and he made some big saves that allowed us to stay in the game and allowed us to stay patient. He was huge for us all series long.”

Fleury thought it was the Penguins’ best team game of the playoffs, a theory that teammates and coach Mike Sullivan echoed. They were again outshot as they were in every game of the series, this time only 29-28, but Rust and Patric Hornqvist scored on Braden Holtby, and Fleury shut the door.

It was as complete a game as Pittsburgh has had through two rounds, even though it was without injured defenseman Trevor Daley and winger Carl Hagelin. Crosby looked like himself again in his third game back from a concussion, and the rest of the team followed.

Ducks 2, Oilers 1

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Nick Ritchie is an NHL playoff newcomer. The 21-yearold power forward wasn’t around for any of the Anaheim Ducks’ agonizing Game 7 defeats over the past four seasons.

So when he found a patch of open ice during the third period Wednesday night, Ritchie could let fly with a beautiful shot, his wrists unencumbered by the weight of history.

After four years of agony and over a decade of fruitless Game 7s, the Ducks are finally the victors of a winner take-all game — and now they’re halfway to another Stanley Cup.

Ritchie scored the tiebreaker, John Gibson made 23 saves and the Ducks ended their streak of five straight Game 7 losses with a 2-1 victory over the Edmonton Oilers, advancing to the Western Conference finals for the second time in three years.

The Ducks ended their ignominious streak after the tense final minutes of a strong defensive performance to back Gibson’s best game of the postseason.