PITTSBURGH

Outhit, outshot and largely outplayed, Pittsburgh grabbed control of its Eastern Conference semifinal against Washington anyway.

Blame it on a 21-year-old rookie goaltender who hardly seems intimidated by the stakes, the prospect of his mentor watching from the bench or the avalanche of shots from the NHL’s best team.

Matt Murray made 47 stops and the Penguins did just enough counter-punching to edge the Capitals 3-2 on Monday night for a 2-1 lead in an increasingly fractious best-of-seven series living up to its billing.

Patric Hornqvist and Tom Kuhnhackl scored a minute apart in the first period, Carl Hagelin added his third of the playoffs in the second and the Penguins held on despite relentless pressure from the Capitals. Alexander Ovechkin and Justin Williams scored in the third, but the Capitals find themselves in a deficit against a franchise they have beaten just once in eight previous playoff meetings.

“They throw a lot of pucks at the net and without Murray, there’s no way we win this game,” Hornqvist said. “That’s what good teams team do. They find a way to win games when they don’t play their best and that’s exactly what we did tonight. We have to be better the next game.”