Penguins 4, Capitals 3 (OT)
WASHINGTON -- Sidney Crosby scored the game-winner with 1:00 left in overtime and the Pittsburgh Penguins defeated the Washington Capitals 4-3 on Thursday night despite squandering a 3-0 second-period lead.
The Penguins (48-25-8), winners of eight straight and 14 of 15, clinched second-place in the Metropolitan Division and home ice in the first round of the playoffs. If form holds, Washington and Pittsburgh would meet in the second round.
The Capitals (55-17-8) scored twice in the third period to tie it.
In overtime, Crosby came on the ice and immediately received a long pass from Kris Letang. He skated in on Braden Holtby, went to his backhand and lifted the puck home for his 36th goal of the season.
Pittsburgh got two goals from Matt Cullen, his 15th and 16th, and one from Conor Sheary in regulation.
Matt Murray made 27 saves in winning his seventh straight decision.
Marcus Johansson scored his 16th and 17th, and Andre Burakovsky scored the tying goal with 6:34 left in regulation, and added an assist.
Braden Holtby stopped 31 shots and remains one win behind tying Martin Brodeur (48) for the NHL one-season record. Washington has back-to-back games remaining Saturday and Sunday, meaning Holtby will likely have one chance to tie the record.
Trailing 3-1, Washington killed off two penalties early in the third period and Johansson cut the deficit in half when his wrist shot from the top of the left circle snuck under Murray's stick arm.
Burakovsky tied it when he deflected a pass from John Carlson (two assists) by Murray with 6:34 left in regulation for his 17th of the season.
It took 44 seconds for the streaking Penguins to take a 1-0 lead as Cullen took a pass from Tom Kuhnhackl on a 3-on-2 rush and beat Holtby to the glove side with a wrist shot from the left circle.
Cullen needed 28 seconds to score a short-handed goal at the beginning of period number two.
The 39-year-old center gathered in a Washington miss and started down ice. Entering the Washington zone 2-on-1, Cullen attempted a backhand pass across to Eric Fehr down low, but the puck deflected off defenseman Matt Niskanen past Holtby.
Pittsburgh failed to score during a 5-minute boarding major on Washington's Tom Wilson, but made it 3-0 shortly thereafter when Sheary took a pass from Oskar Sundqvist on a 3-on-2 and his shot trickled through Holtby's pads at 9:03.
Washington got on the board with 2:41 left in the period as Johansson, at the far post, one-timed a cross-ice dart from Carlson into the Pittsburgh net for his first goal since Feb. 28.
NOTES: Washington C Nicklas Backstrom (upper-body injury) returned after missing three games. ... Former Capitals C Eric Fehr, who missed Pittsburgh's two previous visits because of injury, returned for the first time as a Penguin. ... The Penguins recalled LW Tom Sestito from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the AHL. ... Pittsburgh F Evgeni Malkin (upper body), D Olli Maatta (lower body) and F Bryan Rust (lower body) were ruled out for the final two regular-season games, but G Marc-Andre Fleury (concussion) is day to day. RW Beau Bennett was scratched. ... Washington scratches included D Taylor Chorney, D Mike Weber, C Michael Latta and RW Stanislav Galiev.