WASHINGTON — Friday night’s game officially marked the 20th year in one of the greatest rivalries in hockey history: Sidney Crosby against Alex Ovechkin.

But in this one, it was another superstar who stole the show at Capital One Arena.

Evgeni Malkin scored the winning goal with 9:32 left in the third period to push the Penguins past Ovechkin and the Capitals. He totaled two points in the 4-2 win.

On the scoring play, Bryan Rust charged down the left wing and shoveled the puck into the crease. It came to Malkin, who buried it between Charlie Lindgren’s pads.

Malkin’s goal held up and helped the Penguins overcome their latest blown lead, and they salvaged this three-game road trip through the Metropolitan Division.

The Penguins arrived in Washington on a two-game losing streak. A night earlier, they lost 5-1 at Carolina despite significantly outshooting the host Hurricanes.

After Thursday’s game, coach Mike Sullivan noted that a few of the Penguins didn’t play hard enough against the Hurricanes. He did not name any names, but anyone who watched Erik Karlsson laze through that loss could put two and two together.

Karlsson had a few clunkers in the first month of the season. Sullivan said Karlsson is still trying to get his conditioning up to par after he missed all of their preseason games due to injury. But he acknowledged Karlsson wasn’t meeting expectations.

“[Karlsson is] obviously an elite player. He is capable of having such an impact on the game,” Sullivan said going into Friday’s contest. “We play him in so many critical situations. And so we’re trying to push him and challenge him to be at his best.”

Once the puck dropped, it sure seemed as if Karlsson received Sullivan’s message.

Karlsson gave the Penguins an early lead three minutes in when skated into the slot, pulled in a slick backhand pass from Malkin and snapped a shot past Lindgren.

That was Karlsson’s first goal in four weeks. He had gone 13 games between goals.

The Penguins pushed their lead to two when Karlsson set up Michael Bunting on a two-on-two rush. The blue liner skipped a saucer pass to Bunting, who fully extended his right arm to poke the puck past the right-handed catching glove of Lindgren.

The primary assist gave Karlsson his first multi-point game since Oct. 10 at Detroit.

Thanks to his assertive plays, the Penguins jumped out to another multi-goal lead.

Of course, it didn’t last. Karlsson was on the ice as the Capitals erased their lead.

The Capitals quickly cut it to 2-1 when Rasmus Sandin scored from a bad angle. Karlsson could have defended better on the play. But he forced Sandin wide, and Joel Blomqvist didn’t seal the post and left an opening above his right shoulder.

Andrew Mangiapane tied it up when he converted an odd-man rush in the second period. The Capitals went the other way when Noel Acciari’s shot got blocked and Karlsson was the lone man back. He was unable to break up Jakub Vrana’s pass.

The Penguins have now squandered five of their last six leads of multiple goals.

They traded chances with the Capitals in the second half of that period, but neither team seized the lead. Blomqvist stuffed Tom Wilson on the doorstep. Lindgren stretched out his right pad to rob Rickard Rakell. Dylan Strome put his breakaway try over the cage. Lindgren stopped Rust’s tricky deflection in the final seconds.

Malkin put the Penguins back in front in the third. His first game-winning goal of the season helped them finish with three out of a possible six points on the trip.

Blomqvist was stout down the stretch to keep the lead intact. He was solid all night despite making just his third start in the last 21 days. He finished with 32 saves.

Acciari added an empty-netter with 23 seconds remaining in the game.

Ice chips

— Rust returned to the lineup Friday after he missed five games with a lower-body injury. He came back sooner than the team initially expected. There was concern he had suffered a serious injury when he hobbled off the ice Oct. 26 in Vancouver.

— Rust started the night on the second line with Lars Eller and Drew O’Connor, as Sullivan initially kept his top line intact. But with the score tied heading into the third period, Sullivan split up Crosby and Malkin to try to balance out his lineup. Crosby played with Rakell and O’Connor. Malkin’s wingers were Rust and Bunting.

— The Penguins placed Cody Glass on injured reserve Friday. The forward suffered an upper-body injury at Carolina on Thursday and was unable to finish the game.

— Kevin Hayes sat out a second consecutive game due to his upper-body injury. The Penguins also scratched Ryan Shea. Jack St. Ivany replaced him on the third pair.

— O’Connor has now gone 10 games without a point. His last one came on Oct. 18.

— Tristan Jarry’s conditioning stint in the American Hockey League ends Saturday, so the Penguins must now decide whether to move him back onto their NHL roster or keep him in the AHL. He was in goal for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s loss Friday.

Stat n’at

1 — This was the Penguins’ first victory against a division opponent in five tries.

Coming up

The Penguins headed home after the game and will have the day off Saturday. They will practice Sunday ahead of Monday’s home game against Dallas.

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