Caps score late to defeat Pittsburgh, 2-1

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In Washington, DC, Wednesday night, the Capitals rode Braden Holtby‘s 41 saves to a 2-1 win over the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins.

T.J. Oshie picked up the game-winner with 74 seconds left in regulation.

I kind of came up and ended up getting lost in the front of the net there,” Oshie said. “[Carlson] made a great pass. I probably didn’t have to put it in that high portion of the net, but it was kind of on end. I’m just glad it stayed low enough.”

Oshie had returned from the locker room after going through a concussion protocol following a hit.

T.J. Oshie scored game-winner over Pens Wednesday night – file photo by Lewis Bleiman

“My face is a little messed up, but I’m feeling pretty good now,” Oshie said. “I don’t know if I’ve ever had one like that, but it was nice to get back out there both times. I have to throw a shoutout to the training staff and the doctors both times; they did a good job making sure I was OK. And I probably would’ve came out a lot sooner, but they wanted [me] to be 100 percent.”

Alex Ovechkin scored in the middle frame on the power play, his 235th career power play goal.

“We’re getting closer. We’re recognizing it more and more. We played a really strong game [against] Edmonton, and tonight I think we had the right mindset going in. I thought Pittsburgh played really well. They were on a mission to put in a good effort,” Holtby said after the Caps improved to 7-4-3.

Sidney Crosby staked the Penguins to a 1-0 lead in the first period.

“Sometimes that happens,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “You play well and you don’t get the result, but we’ve just got to build on it. That’s what I told our guys after the game.”

[WATCH: All Penguins vs. Capitals highlights]

Casey DeSmith made 20 saves in the loss.

“We had some good chances,” Crosby said. “We hit some posts, pucks laying around that we couldn’t put in. But on the ones that we had some really good looks on, [Holtby] made some saves.”

The Pens dropped to 6-5-3 and have lost five straight, 04-1.

“I thought we were better in all areas. I thought we played with way more urgency. I thought we won puck battles. I thought we stopped on pucks. We got the puck to the net, we went to the net. We were better in so many areas,” Sullivan said after the loss.