Penguins score seven to defeat Capitals

PITTSBURGH -- Evgeni Malkin had two goals and two assists for the Pittsburgh Penguins in a 7-4 win against the Washington Capitals at PPG Paints Arena on Friday.

"It's great tonight," said Malkin, who has 10 points in his past three games (seven goals, three assists). "We played quick. We used our legs. We understand each other… We enjoy playing. We are having fun right now. We understand we have four great lines."
WATCH: [All Capitals vs. Penguins highlights]
Phil Kessel scored twice; Carl Hagelin, Patric Hornqvist and Bryan Rust each had a goal; and Matt Murray made 29 saves for Pittsburgh (29-21-3), which has won four straight and is 9-2-0 in its past 11 games.
"This weekend, we have some big games," Kessel said. "We started off pretty good."
Alex Ovechkin had two goals and an assist, and Braden Holtby made 27 saves on 33 shots for Washington (30-16-5), which has lost four of its past six games (2-2-2).
"I thought we had some stretches where we were fine," Capitals coach Barry Trotz said. "I thought we were pretty resilient. We were chasing the game and got it tied up. At the end of the day, we just gave them a few too many odd-man rushes and we lost the special teams war."
Pittsburgh was 3-for-4 on the power play; Washington was 0-for-3.

Kessel gave the Penguins a 1-0 lead at 2:11 of the first period after banking a shot off Holtby. Hagelin made it 2-0 at 15:50 after intercepting a pass from Christian Djoos and scoring on the blocker side.
Ovechkin made it 2-1 when he stickhandled around Kris Letang on his way to the net, taking a wrist shot that deflected off Murray's pads and Brian Dumoulin's skate before crossing the goal line at 18:10.
Hornqvist made it 3-1 with a power-play goal 26 seconds into the second period. Malkin passed to Sidney Crosby along the side of the net, who quickly sent the puck to Hornqvist, who one-timed a shot past Holtby's blocker.
Crosby has 22 points (three goals, 19 assists) during his season-long 11-game point streak. He is on a seven-game goal drought since scoring his 399th NHL goal against the New York Rangers on Jan. 14.
Dmitry Orlov's slap shot from the top of the left circle to cut it to 3-2 at 3:08 of the second before Evgeny Kuznetsov tied it 3-3 at 11:57.

Malkin scored at 1:01 of the third period after getting a rebound off his initial shot and making it 4-3.
Ovechkin tied it 4-4 with his second goal at 1:50 of the third, but the Penguins regained the lead after Rust scored on a power play. He gathered the rebound off a shot from Letang and scored around Holtby's left pad at 6:08 of the third to make it 5-4.
"We made two turnovers in the first period and they score," Ovechkin said. "We come back. It was a tight game, 3-3. They scored another one and we tied the game again. We gave them opportunities to score and we didn't [score]. We'll take it and go forward."
Kessel made it 6-4 when he shot short side over Holtby's glove at 7:59 of the third period. Following the goal, Holtby was pulled and replaced by Philipp Grubauer, who made five saves on six shots.
Malkin scored his second on the power play to give the Penguins a 7-4 lead at 10:00 of the third period.

Goal of the game

Rust's goal at 6:08 of the third period.

Save of the game

Murray's save on Chandler Stephenson at 13:17 of the first period.

Highlight of the game

Kessel's goal at 7:59 of the third period.

They said it

"I thought it was a good game. I thought it was two good teams going at it. They made some good plays when they scored. So, it's tough to keep them off the board… I just thought it was a real good hockey game. There were offensive chances at both ends of the rink. We'd like to do a better job, I think, of limiting a handful of them."-- Penguins coach Mike Sullivan
"Got behind. Battled back over the course of two periods there. We were able to find some offense, but couldn't play defense today." -- Capitals defenseman Matt Niskanen

Need to know

Hornqvist sustained a lower-body injury colliding with Capitals defenseman Brooks Orpik at 2:37 of the third period. Sullivan said Hornqvist would not travel with the Penguins to New Jersey. … Pittsburgh forward Conor Sheary did not play with a lower-body injury and is listed as week to week. Rust, who has three goals in his past two games, played on the first line at right wing in his absence. … Ovechkin has 10 points in his past seven games (five goals, five assists).

What's next

Capitals: Host the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday (12:30 p.m. ET; NBCSWA, ATTSN-RM, NHL.TV)
Penguins: At the New Jersey Devils on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; MSG+, 2, ATTSN-PT, NHL.TV)