Evgeni Malkin had two assists Tuesday to become the 88th NHL player to reach 1,000 career points, and the Pittsburgh Penguins halted the visiting Washington Capitals' seven-game winning streak, 5-3.
On a night of milestones, Washington's Alex Ovechkin had an assist to reach 1,200 career points.
Sidney Crosby scored twice, and Jake Guentzel, Phil Kessel and Jared McCann tallied once apiece for third-place Pittsburgh, which has won five of six and moved to within four points of first-place Washington in the Metropolitan Division.
Matt Murray stopped 38 Capitals shots.
Jakub Vrana scored twice and John Carlson once for the Capitals, and Braden Holtby made 25 saves.
Washington took a 1-0 lead with 32.4 seconds left in the first period. Vrana picked up his 20th goal on a wrist shot from beyond the dot in the right circle that sailed under the crossbar.
Vrana made it 2-0 at 10:24 of the second on a shot from that popped up off Murray's blocker, over the goalie's head, off his back and into the net.
McCann stripped the puck from Washington's Evgeny Kuznetsov, took off toward the net and set up a one-timer for Guentzel, whose 35th goal made it 2-1 at 12:37 of the second.
On the same shift, Justin Schultz picked off the puck in his defensive end and sent a lob pass ahead. Crosby caught up with the puck at the far blue line and slipped it between Holtby's pads to tie it 47 seconds after Guentzel's goal.
The Penguins took a 3-2 lead on Crosby's second goal of the game, 33rd of the season and 90th point. He one-timed a back-door pass from Kessel during a power play at 14:25 of the second, making it three goals in a span of 1:48.
Malkin got the secondary assist, the 999th point of his career, and he got the secondary assist on Kessel's power-play goal on a rebound at 11:56 of the third to reach 1,000.
Carlson's power-play goal on a rebound at 14:02 of the third closed it to 4-3 and boosted Ovechkin to 1,200 points.
McCann scored an empty-netter with 55.8 seconds left.
--Field Level Media
Washington | Pittsburgh | |
Jakub Vrana 2 | Points | Sidney Crosby 2 |
Jakub Vrana 2 | Goals | Sidney Crosby 2 |
Nicklas Backstrom 2 | Assists | Evgeni Malkin 2 |
John Carlson 1 | Power Play Goals | Sidney Crosby 1 |
N/A | Short Handed Goals | N/A |
Braden Holtby .862 | Save Percentage | Matt Murray .927 |
Braden Holtby 25 | Saves | Matt Murray 38 |
Team | Shots | Goals | Power Play | Penalty Kill | Penalty Mins | Face Offs Won |
Washington | 41 | 3 | 1-2 | 2-4 | 10 | 27 |
Pittsburgh | 30 | 5 | 2-4 | 1-2 | 6 | 32 |