PITTSBURGH

Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom have spent their entire careers chasing the Pittsburgh Penguins and shouldering their own franchise’s onerous history of playoff failures.

One brilliant end-to-end rush gave the two Washington Capitals teammates and their resilient club something they’ve rarely enjoyed against the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions: momentum.

Ovechkin knocked his own rebound out of midair and by Matt Murray with 1:07 remaining to lift the Capitals to a 4-3 victory on Tuesday night in Game 3 of their increasingly testy Eastern Conference semifinal series with Pittsburgh.

Ovechkin’s initial shot smacked off the far post.

The Russian star, however, stayed with the play and with Murray out of position, he deftly flicked it into the open net to give the Capitals a 2-1 series lead.

“It’s a good thing I didn’t raise my arms up (after the first shot), you know to (celebrate) the play,” Ovechkin said after scoring his eighth goal of the playoffs. “Got lucky.”

Matt Niskanen, John Carlson and Chandler Stephenson also scored for Washington, which improved to 4-0 on the road in the postseason. Braden Holtby finished with 19 saves. Backstrom had three assists, including the helper on Ovechkin’s winner.

“It’s huge, huge goal,” Ovechkin said. “Obviously for our team, you know we want to win tonight and we did. It doesn’t matter what, it doesn’t matter who scored. We sacrifice. We play hard. And we have to do the same moving forward.”

Game 4 is in Pittsburgh on Thursday night.

Jake Guentzel had a goal and an assist for Pittsburgh. Sidney Crosby and Patric Hornqvist also scored, but the Penguins lost consecutive playoff games for only the fourth time since the start of their run to consecutive Stanley Cups began in 2016.

Pittsburgh also lost forward Zach Aston-Reese to a broken jaw and a concussion following a violent collision with Washington’s

Tom Wilson at the game’s midway point.

Aston-Reese was stickhandling near the Washington bench when Wilson slammed into him, sending the 6-foot-4 Aston- Reese to the ice.

Wilson was not penalized on the play, the second time in as many games he was not disciplined for a borderline hit.

Pittsburgh defenseman Brian Dumoulin went into the league’s concussion protocol after Wilson blindsided him in Game 2 while Dumoulin was bracing for a collision with Ovechkin.

Jets 7, Predators 4

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) — Down 3-0 after a disastrous opening 20 minutes, there was no flipping of tables or peeling of paint off the walls in the Winnipeg Jets’ locker room.

They instead spent the first intermission calmly trying to figure a way out of that deficit.

“We got kicked in the teeth a little bit,” Jets captain Blake Wheeler said. “Our goal was just to win the second period and give ourselves a chance.”

They did that, and a whole lot more.

Wheeler scored on the power play with 4:59 left after Winnipeg roared back from that early deficit to defeat the Nashville Predators 7-4 on Tuesday night and grab a 2-1 lead in their second-round playoff series.

“It’s definitely not how you draw up a first period, but nobody panicked,” said Jets defenseman Jacob Trouba, who finished with a goal and an assist.

Dustin Byfuglien had two goals and an assist for Winnipeg, and Paul Stastny added a goal and two assists.

Wheeler, who also had an assist, scored the first of two empty-net goals in the final minute, with Brandon Tanev getting the other.

Mark Scheifele added two assists to become the first player since Sidney Crosby in 2010 to have five consecutive multi-point games in a postseason. Connor Hellebuyck made 26 stops.

Filip Forsberg and P.K. Subban each had a goal and an assist for Nashville, while Mike Fisher and Austin Watson also scored. Mattias Ekholm and Ryan Johansen both added two assists for the Predators, who got 38 saves from Pekka Rinne.