Alex Ovechkin's late goal dooms Penguins in Game 3

Alex Ovechkin is hurting the Penguins.

Odd-man rushes are hurting the Penguins.

Tom Wilson is literally hurting the Penguins.

There was plenty of pain to go around as Ovechkin's goal with 67 seconds left carried the Washington Capitals to a 4-3 victory over the Penguins in Game 3 of the Metropolitan Division finals Tuesday night.

The Capitals lead the series 2-1 with Game 4 set for Thursday night at PPG Paints Arena. Unless the Penguins have a three-game winning streak up their sleeve, their three-peat bid will hang in the balance.

"It's hard to win in the playoffs," coach Mike Sullivan said. "No one knows it better than this team."

On the winning goal, Ovechkin took a page out of Sidney Crosby's playbook, knocking a puck in out of midair.

He took a pass from Nicklas Backstrom on a two-on-one and rang a shot off the right post. As Ovechkin drifted toward the opposite post, he bunted in the airborne puck.

"World-class goal, obviously," Washington coach Barry Trotz said. "Great hands. That's why he's scored so many goals. Those two, they're dynamic together."

The Penguins weren't in the mood to celebrate Ovechkin's skill afterwards, of course.

They were focused on how the odd-man break started. At the end of a long offensive-zone shift, Olli Maatta made an errant backhand pass toward Patric Hornqvist in the right faceoff circle. Backstrom picked it off. When Wilson took out Maatta's skates, the Capitals were off to the races.

"We just gotta be smarter with the puck in that time of the game and that area of the rink and make sure that we give our forwards another opportunity to make a play at the net," Sullivan said.

"It was unfortunate. We had pretty good momentum at that particular point of the game. We had our top line on the ice. We felt like the other team was tired. We had an extended zone shift. It was disappointing."

The Penguins have been victimized by odd-man rushes repeatedly in the series, and when they are, it seems like Ovechkin is always in the middle of it. He's scored in all three games, though his latest performance didn't impress Letang.

"I don't think he was dangerous tonight," Letang said. "He came up with a big goal. I thought we did a really good job reducing his time and space. I thought we did a good job. This game, I thought we dictated most of it, and we fell on the wrong side of it. That's it."

The Penguins were also on the wrong side of another violent hit by Wilson, who delivered a head shot to defenseman Brian Dumoulin in Game 2.

Midway through the second period of Tuesday's game, Wilson caught Zach Aston-Reese with a violent, open-ice hit in front of the Capitals bench.

Wilson drove his shoulder into Aston-Reese's chin, drawing blood and sending the rookie to the locker room, where he was diagnosed with a broken jaw that will require surgery and a concussion, Sullivan said.

Neither referee called a penalty. After a long conference between the refs and linesmen in front of the penalty box, no infraction was called.

Less than a minute later, the Capitals forged a 2-2 tie on a Chandler Stephenson goal.

"At some point, we would hope that the league might do something," Sullivan said.

Stephenson's goal hurt the Penguins, but not as much as the one Matt Niskanen scored five minutes into the third.

The Penguins took a 3-2 lead late in the second when Jake Guentzel undressed Dmitry Orlov to set up Crosby for a shot from the right circle. Niskanen tied the score on a shot from inside the left point that hit Matt Murray's glove and trickled in.

"They're coming in waves," Murray said.

Jonathan Bombulie is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at jbombulie@tribweb.com or via Twitter @BombulieTrib.