The visiting Washington Capitals took an early four-goal lead Tuesday, then held on to edge the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-3.
Tom Wilson, Beck Malenstyn, Martin Fehervary and Alex Ovechkin scored, and Rasmus Sandin added two assists for the Capitals, who had lost four consecutive games (0-2-2).
Washington goaltender Darcy Kuemper made 32 saves.
Sidney Crosby, Rickard Rakell and Jake Guentzel each had a goal and an assist for the Penguins, who had won three games in a row and were 7-1-1 in their previous nine. With his two points, Crosby passed Joe Thornton for 12th on the NHL’s all-time scoring list with 1,540.
Pittsburgh goaltender Tristan Jarry got pulled after giving up three goals on seven shots. Alex Nedeljkovic came in and made 14 saves.
It was the 67th head-to-head matchup between superstars Ovechkin and Crosby, with the Penguins leading in those games 39-24-4.
Wilson gave the Capitals a 1-0 lead 55 seconds into regulation. His shot from the top of the right circle sailed over Jarry’s blocker.
At 11:16 of the first, Malenstyn’s sharp-angle shot went in off the stick of Penguins defenseman Ryan Graves to make it 2-0.
From the high slot, Fehervary used a screen to score on a rising shot at 13:02 of the first to push the Capitals’ lead to 3-1 and chase Jarry.
It appeared that Pittsburgh’s Chad Ruhwedel scored at 16:33 of the first, but Washington successfully challenged that the Penguins were offside.
Ovechkin, who had two goals in the previous 19 games, got a power-play goal on a screened shot from the right point to make it 4-0 with 42 seconds left in the first.
Pittsburgh finally answered when Rakell, from the top of the slot, scored on a one-timer set up by Erik Karlsson with four seconds left in the first to cut it to 4-1.
Crosby’s power-play goal at 9:11 of the second further trimmed Pittsburgh’s deficit to 4-2.
Guentzel pulled the Penguins to within 4-3 at 18:54 of the second on a back-door play from Crosby.
–Field Level Media
