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Pettersson’s goal line save helps Penguins top Capitals

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Marcus Pettersson's huge diving save keeps the Penguins out in front of the Capitals.

The Pittsburgh Penguins put an end to the Washington Capitals’ five-game winning streak and Alex Ovechkin’s goal-scoring streak on Wednesday night in an intense rivalry game featuring the winners of the past three Stanley Cups.

Sidney Crosby and Bryan Rust provided the offense for the Penguins in the 2-1 win, while Matt Murray turned aside 31 of the 32 shots he faced in his second game back from injury.

The save of the night, however, did not belong to Murray. It instead went to Penguins defenseman Marcus Pettersson for sweeping a loose puck off the goal line when it was just a matter of inches from tying the game in the third period. That play happened just a few minutes after Riley Sheahan made a similar (though not as close) play on the goal line.

The Penguins acquired Pettersson just a couple of weeks ago from the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for forward Daniel Sprong.

While Sprong has taken advantage of his increased role in Anaheim and found his offensive game, Pettersson has been a solid addition to the Penguins’ third defense pair. This was by far his biggest play since the trade.

All of the Penguins’ defenders came through on Wednesday, especially their top pairing of Kris Letang and Brian Dumoulin who spent much of the night going up against Ovechkin. They needed huge minutes from them, too, because the Penguins played almost the entire game with only five defenders after Jamie Oleksiak was injured 55 seconds into the game in a fight with Capitals forward Tom Wilson.
[Related: Penguins’ Oleksiak injured in fight with Capitals’ Wilson]

The Penguins, now 9-4-3 in their past 16 games, are tied with the New York Islanders for third place in the Metropolitan Division (the Islanders currently own the tiebreaker) and are one spot back of the Montreal Canadiens for the second Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference. Not anywhere near where they want or expect to be, but they are taking strides to get back on track after a tough start to the season.

The Capitals, meanwhile, had won five games in a row entering the night and still have a nice cushion in the division. They are also 13-4-0 in their past 17 games.

This game also snapped what was a six-game goal-scoring streak for Ovechkin who still has a league-best 29 goals in 33 games, including 17 in his past 15 games. Those are just some of the stunning numbers for him this season.

MORE: Your 2018-19 NHL on NBC TV schedule

Adam Gretz is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @AGretz.