Photo: Justin Aller/Getty Images

The Washington Capitals finished their season-opening four-game road trip with a 5-4 overtime loss against the Pittsburgh Penguins at PPG Paints Arena on Tuesday night. The overtime loss put the Capitals in a tie with the Philadelphia Flyers for first place in the East Division with six points with each team having played four games this season. Goaltender Vitek Vanecek made 25 saves in the loss.

Capitals’ Lines at Penguins

Capitals lines vs Penguins

Ovechkin-Backstrom-Wilson
Panik-Eller-Oshie
Vrana-Kuznetsov-Sprong
Hagelin-Dowd-Hathaway

Orlov-Carlson
Dillon-Schultz
Chara-Jensen

Vanecek

— Samantha Pell (@SamanthaJPell) January 19, 2021

Forward Tom Wilson was elevated to the top line and Daniel Sprong was lifted to the second while T.J. Oshie was downgraded to the third. Forward Conor Sheary, defensemen Trevor Van Riemsdyk, and defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler remained scratched.

First Period

Center Lars Eller ripped one from the right circle on a four-on-two rush after getting a cross-ice feed from forward T.J. Oshie to open the scoring for the Capitals 4:55 in.

🎯🎯🎯 @lellerofficial pic.twitter.com/EWe7hlEvIF

— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) January 20, 2021

Forward Colton Sceviour crashed the net and stashed the puck into the net after Vanecek could not handle forward Kasperi Kapanen’s initial shot to tie it with 3:08 left in the first.

Forward Tom Wilson shot one from the right circle and the puck floated over goaltender Casey DeSmith off of the draw six seconds after the Penguins tied it to give the Capitals the lead back.

We’ll have whatever @tom_wilso is having pic.twitter.com/qT6ny0BC4P

— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) January 20, 2021

Wilson tipped in defenseman John Carlson’s backhand pass from the half wall after crashing the net to make it 3-1 with 16.3 seconds left.

ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED? pic.twitter.com/dFe4tX8nj8

— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) January 20, 2021

The Capitals led 11-5 in shots, 6-5 in blocked shots, and 15-13 in hits after one.

The Penguins led 2-0 in takeaways and won 65% of the draws in the first.

Each team posted one giveaway and did not have a power-play through 20 minutes.

Second Period

Forward Jake Guentzel tapped in forward Bryan Rust’s cross-crease feed at the doorstep on a five-on-three power-play to cut the Capitals’ lead to one 5:45 into the period.

Center Evgeny Kuznetsov buried forward Jakub Vrana’s soft rebound at the doorstep to double the Capitals’ lead at 8:16.

Kuzy joins the party! 🥳 pic.twitter.com/hJ6Xn70rfT

— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) January 20, 2021

Forward Teddy Blueger opened up the legs of Vanecek and buried one through the five-hole after getting a Hail Marry pass from DeSmith to make it a one-goal game again on a three-on-five with 4:53 left.

Center Evgeni Malkin bombed one from the right dot that went high blocker on Vanacek after getting a feed from defenseman Kris Letang to tie it on the power-play with 2:45 to go in the second.

The Capitals led 18-15 in shots, 28-25 in hits, had one giveaway while the Penguins had four, and failed to convert on two power-plays through 40 minutes.

The Penguins led 10-7 in second-period shots, 2-1 in takeaways, scored on two of their three power-plays, and won 56% of the draws in the first two periods.

Each team blocked 11 shots through two periods of play.

Third Period

The Capitals led 54-37 in hits and failed to convert on two power-plays.

The Penguins led 27-25 in shots, including 12-7 in the third period, 17-15 in blocked shots, cored on two of their three power-plays, and won 63% of the draws.

Each team recorded four giveaways and two takeaways.

The game would go to overtime after a scoreless third period.

Overtime

Captain Sidney Crosby swept the rebound off of Guentzel’s shot past the left pad of Vanecek to win the game for the Penguins 1:11 into overtime.

The Penguins led 3-1 in shots in overtime and 30-26 in the game.

The Capitals come home to host the Buffalo Sabres for back-to-back games this weekend starting on Friday. Action from Capital One Arena can be seen on NBC Sports Washington beginning at 7 PM ET.

By Harrison Brown