Penguins beat Caps in shootout

WASHINGTON (AP) — In the end, just as it should have, the game came down to Sidney Crosby vs. Alex Ovechkin, the NHL’s past two MVPs, each with the puck on his stick.

This wasn’t about talking trash or swapping shoves. This was about who would come through in a shootout between Sid the Kid’s Pittsburgh Penguins and Alex the Great’s Washington Capitals in a late-season game played in a playoff-like atmosphere.

Crosby came through this time. Ovechkin did not.

Unlike their last meeting, Crosby avoided much in the way of face-to-face confrontations with rival Ovechkin on Sunday, instead producing a goal and assist in regulation, then the shootout’s only score to help Pittsburgh edge Washington 4-3 — the Penguins’ sixth consecutive victory and the Capitals’ fourth straight loss.

“Great ones seem to have the game on the line when it’s their turn,” Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau said. “Tonight it was Sidney’s time to have the game on the line, and he’s a great one. And he made no mistake.”

After Crosby lifted his shot over goalie Jose Theodore’s glove side, Marc-Andre Fleury thwarted Ovechkin with a kick save to end the shootout. Fleury earlier stopped shots by Alexander Semin and Viktor Kozlov, as Pittsburgh completed the first 5-0 road trip in franchise history.

“Today was a good challenge to see where we stack up, see where we’re at, see where our players are at, see where our team’s at,” said Penguins interim coach Dan Bylsma, 8-1-1 since replacing the fired Michel Terrien on Feb. 15.

“It wasn’t a perfect game, but it was a perfect road trip.”

His lone regulation loss? A 5-2 setback in Washington on Feb. 22. Ovechkin and Crosby exchanged some pushing on the ice and plenty of jawing off it.

On Sunday Crosby made it 1-0 only 41‚Ñ2 minutes in, then used a back-to-the-ice, no-look backhand pass to set up Bill Guerin’s first goal since being traded by the Islanders to the Penguins.

Ovechkin’s league-high 47th goal was part of a two-score rally in a 49-second span of the third period that erased Pittsburgh’s 3-1 lead.

While the two superstars didn’t engage in much rough stuff with each other this time there was plenty to go around elsewhere.

A check by Capitals defenseman Milan Jurcina on Tyler Kennedy dislodged a piece of glass and led to both players being sent to the penalty box, part of the first period’s seven infractions, five on Pittsburgh. The second period began with a 4-on-4, and each team had nearly 2 minutes’ worth of 4-on-3.

Bylsma set a franchise record for most points in a Penguins coach’s first 10 games, breaking a mark held by Herb Brooks.