Malkin’s goal lifts Penguins in OT

When it comes to the Washington Capitals, the Pittsburgh Penguins excel at playing from behind. They’ve done it so well they finally have the lead.

The Penguins overcame a third-period deficit, survived Alex Ovechkin’s tying goal late in regulation, then won on Evgeni Malkin’s power-play goal 3:28 into overtime Saturday night for a 4-3 victory in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinals at Washington.

Jordan Staal, Ruslan Fedotenko and Matt Cooke also scored, and Marc-Andre Fleury made 28 saves for the Penguins, who have won three straight after dropping the first two games of the series. Since 1991, Washington has lost five series in which it blew a lead against Pittsburgh, including 2-0 advantages in 1992 and 1996.

The winning goal came with one second remaining in the advantage. Defenseman Milan Jurcina had been sent to the box for tripping Malkin to stop a possible breakaway. Malkin’s winning shot deflected off the stick of defenseman Tom Poti and past rookie goalie Simeon Varlamov, giving the Penguins a chance to close out the series Monday at Pittsburgh.

“These games come down to mistakes and bounces,” Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby said. “And we got a good bounce there on the last goal.”

The Penguins became the first road team to win in the series, and they were the first to win after scoring first.

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Chicago 4, Vancouver 2 -- David Bolland scored the go-ahead goal on a power play with 5:05 left, and the Blackhawks beat the Canucks at Vancouver, Canada, to take a 3-2 lead in the Western Conference semifinal series.

Martin Havlat scored an empty-net goal with 62 seconds left.

The Blackhawks trailed 2-1 midway through the second period but rallied to win for the third time in the series.

Chicago can advance to the Western Conference finals at home with a Game 6 win on Monday night.