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PITTSBURGH (AP) -- The Washington Capitals can't hold a lead against the Pittsburgh Penguins. They'll find out now if they can play them from way, way behind.
Jiri Slegr's slap shot beat goaltender Olaf Kolzig with 4:32 remaining and the Penguins, luring the Capitals into an unwanted shootout, won 4-3 Monday night to seize a 3-0 Eastern Conference playoff lead.
|  | | Pittsburgh's Jan Hrdina has beaten Washington goalie Olaf Kolzig four times in three games. |
Jan Hrdina scored twice -- with four goals, he has as many as Washington in the series -- as the seventh-seeded Penguins moved within a victory of their second major playoff upset in two seasons.
The Penguins eliminated top-seeded New Jersey a year ago and now need one more victory to oust the second-seeded Capitals, who failed to hold a 1-0 lead for the second successive game.
"We feel good at 3-0 but they've got three of the next four there," the Penguins' Robbie Brown said.
Penguins goaltender Ron Tugnutt said, "The fourth game is always the hardest to win."
Game 4 will be Wednesday night in Washington, where Pittsburgh won 7-0 in Game 1, followed by Game 5, if necessary on Friday. The quirky schedule, which wound up benefiting the Penguins, resulted from scheduling conflicts at Mellon Arena and ABC-TV's request to televise Game 2.
"We know they can win four in a row because they were the better team during the season," Penguins star Jaromir Jagr said. "We're not looking to the second round yet because the first round isn't over."
Still, only two teams in NHL history have squandered a 3-0 playoff lead, the Penguins doing it last in 1975 against the Islanders.
"It's not over," Calle Johansson of the Capitals said. "They've still got one more to win. It sounds like a lot that we have to win four, but it's been done before. They say there are no rules without exceptions, so why not again?"
The Capitals, playing with the desperation of a team about to go down three games, tied it at 3 on Johansson's goal at 14:02, but Slegr won it less than two minutes later.
"You tie it up on the road and the momentum swings again," Steve Konowalchuk of the Capitals said. "We were right there. We were all believing we were going to win the game."
Martin Straka drew the defense by carrying the puck down the right-wing boards, then threw it across the ice to Slegr, who came off the bench to slam it past Kolzig from the left circle.
"Marty was being real patient and looking for someone," Slegr said. "I had so much time because everybody had gone down low. This is probably the best goal I've ever scored."
Hrdina scored a critical tying goal in the second period, then put Pittsburgh ahead 3-2 by taking Jagr's pass and steering the puck off Kolzig's glove at 2:13 of the third. Not long after that, Hrdina left with a strained muscle.
"That's a goal I can't let in, not in the playoffs," Kolzig said. "Every game you lose now makes it tougher."
Pittsburgh's offense was nonexistent for the first 25 minutes, managing only two shots in the first period while being outshot 19-5 at one point -- a virtual replay of Game 2, when Washington also opened a 1-0 lead.
"You've to play 60 minutes and they gave everything they had in the first 20 minutes," Jagr said. "After that, we started to skate better and make some better plays."
It took an unlikely source, the fourth line, to finally open up the Penguins' offense with an excellent shift that created several scoring chances and awakened a standing-room crowd of 17,148 in the NHL's oldest arena.
Not long after that, with Ulf Dahlen off for holding down Jagr along the rear boards, Hrdina skated down the slot to take Jagr's pass from the right circle and steer it past Kolzig at 8:04.
Pittsburgh kept pressuring after the power play goal and the fourth line scored this time, with Pat Falloon's wraparound deflecting off defenseman Sergei Gonchar's skate to make it 2-1 at 9:44 -- 1:40 after Hrdina's goal.
With most of the fans still celebrating the goal, Tugnutt unwisely abandoned the net as he tried to clear the puck, allowing Jeff Halpern to jam it into the net 11 seconds after Falloon scored.
Tugnutt, 11-2 against Washington the last four seasons, stopped 24 shots.
Washington's Chris Simon, returning from his one-game suspension for cross checking Peter Popovic to the jaw in Game 1, gave Washington the 1-0 lead at 15:39 of the first.
Simon, abandoned by defenseman Hans Jonsson in front of the net, went from his backhand to his forehand to lift a rebound of his own shot by Tugnutt.
Popovic, cited by coach Herb Brooks for his consistent shot-blocking in Game 2, missed the game with an apparent concussion resulting from the Game 1 hit.
Washington is 0-6-1 since last winning at Pittsburgh in November 1997. The Penguins are 6-1 against the Capitals this season.
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Ottawa 4
Toronto 3
Pittsburgh 4
Washington 3
Detroit 2
Los Angeles 1
Colorado 4
Phoenix 2
San Jose 2
St. Louis 1
AUDIO/VIDEO
 Rob Brown shows major concentration in the crease.
avi: 596 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Jan Hrdina hits the tough shot against Washington.
avi: 924 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Jiri Slegr unleashes the sweet shot against Washington.
avi: 650 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
 Ron Tugnutt compares the third game of the Penguins-Capitals series with the first two.
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RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
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