Capitals start fast, hold on against Penguins

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 33 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.

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. That put Crosby into a tie with Joe Thornton for 12th all-time with 1,539 points.

Guentzel pulled the Penguins to within 4-3 at 18:54 of the second on a back-door play from Crosby.

—Field Level Media