Capitals win in OT to avoid 0-3 hole

Penguins’ Crosby hit in head early, doesn’t return.

PITTSBURGH — Kevin Shattenkirk scored 3:13 into overtime and the Washington Capitals overcame a late collapse in regulation to beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-2 on Monday night in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.

Washington drew within 2-1 in the series when Shattenkirk’s shot from the point zipped by Marc-Andre Fleury’s blocker.

Game 4 is Wednesday night in Pittsburgh.

The Penguins played most of the game without star Sidney Crosby, who left in the first period after taking a hit to the head from Capitals defenseman Matt Niskanen.

The Penguins were in Washington’s end of the ice when Niskanen crosschecked Crosby across the face with his stick. Crosby was skating by Washington goaltender Braden Holtby when he turned and faced Niskanen.

Niskanen raised his stick and hit Crosby flush. Crosby was on the ice in obvious pain for several minutes before exiting slowly under his own power.

Niskanen was given a five-minute major penalty and a 10-minute game misconduct.

Crosby entered the game tied for second in scoring for Pittsburgh with 11 points, including two goals in Pittsburgh’s Game 1 victory over Washington.

Washington appeared to be in control of Game 3 thanks to goals by Nicklas Backstrom and Evgeny Kuznetzov. The lead vanished in the final two minutes of the third when Evgeni Malkin and Justin Schultz scored in a 48-second span to force overtime.

Tonight’s games

Senators at Rangers: Aside from Jean-Gabriel Pageau’s four goals in Game 2, the Senators’ other four goals in this series have come from four different players — Ryan Dzingel and captain Erik Karlsson in the opener, and Marc Methot and Mark Stone in Game 2.

“We have four lines that can play offense or play just in general and be dangerous,” said former Ranger Derick Brassard, who joined Ottawa in the offseason.

Blues at Predators: St. Louis coach Mike Yeo is looking at making some changes to his lines and what the Blues can do differently in Game 4 after losing their first road game during this postseason.

He called the Blues noncompetitive in failing to match the Predators’ level of play in Sunday’s 3-1 loss.

“Coming into this series, one of my concerns was that we didn’t really hate this team,” Yeo said. “I think we’ve got to the point where we’re over that now.”