Malkin gets goal, assist to lift Penguins past Capitals

WASHINGTON -- Evgeni Malkin had the go-ahead goal and an assist for the Pittsburgh Penguins in a 4-2 win against the Washington Capitals at Capital One Arena on Friday.

Bryan Rust carried the puck into the offensive zone and, as he skated below the goal line, passed in front to Malkin, who was skating to the crease and swept the puck in to give Pittsburgh a 3-2 lead at 10:28 of the third period.

“I knew I was going in there on a forward, so I just tried to take him wide,” Rust said. “I saw over my shoulder somebody was going to the net, so I just tried to kind of lay [it off] the pads, cause a little havoc and I was able to find ‘Geno.’"

Noel Acciari scored an empty-net goal with 23 seconds remaining for the 4-2 final.

Erik Karlsson had a goal and an assist for the Penguins (6-8-2), who lost 5-1 to the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday. Joel Blomqvist made 32 saves.

“I thought [the third period] was one of our more complete periods, just kind of digging in and playing a team game,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “Really proud of the guys against a team that’s playing extremely well right now. They check hard. They’ve won a lot of games.”

Rasmus Sandin and Andrew Mangiapane scored for the Capitals (9-4-0), who had won seven straight home games. Charlie Lindgren made 28 saves.

“It felt like we had the momentum when they scored there [in the third],” Capitals defenseman John Carlson said. “We had a lot of good chances throughout the game that could have maybe changed the trajectory of it. Not that we played the perfect game. We probably gave up too many chances.”

Karlsson gave the Penguins a 1-0 lead at 3:11 of the first period. Malkin circled the net and passed to Karlsson, who beat Lindgren low on the glove side with a wrist shot from the slot.

Michael Bunting extended the lead to 2-0 at 6:59 when he deflected Karlsson’s centering pass in with one hand on his stick off the rush.

“We were not good to start,” Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said. “I could tell potentially we underestimated how competitive the game was going to be in that first 20 minutes, then we got caught up in the second. We figured it out.”

Sandin made it 2-1 at 8:22, scoring over Blomqvist’s right shoulder from a sharp angle at the left face-off dot.

Mangiapane tied the score 2-2 at 6:04 of the second period on a feed from Jakub Vrana on a 2-on-1 rush.

Later in the period, Blomqvist stopped Tom Wilson on an odd-man rush, and Lindgren made a sprawling pad save on Rickard Rakell in front.

“We probably knew we needed this one,” Rust said. “I think in the locker room we weren't too happy with how that second period went. We kind of knew that we just needed to go over the boards, kind of hit the reset. The game was tied and go out there and win a period.”

NOTES: Friday’s game marked the 70th time that Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin played against each other in their NHL careers. Crosby has 91 points (31 goals, 60 assists) against Washington, and Ovechkin has 67 points (37 goals, 30 assists) against Pittsburgh. … Ovechkin’s five-game point streak (six goals, five assists) was snapped. … Capitals forward Dylan Strome had his five-game point streak (one goal, nine assists) snapped. … The Penguins have points in six straight visits to Capital One Arena (5-0-1) and are 7-1-1 in their last nine road games against the Capitals. … Rust played 18:27 and was plus-2 in his return after missing five games with a lower-body injury.