They got the two points, but the Pittsburgh Penguins are still having trouble closing out their third period leads.

PITTSBURGH - The Pittsburgh Penguins notched a huge two points in their win over the Washington Capitals, but it wasn’t without a little bit of heart-stopping tension.

Jake Guentzel scored to give the Penguins a 3-0 lead early in the final period and Casey DeSmith was putting up the game of his career before the Capitals came roaring back.

Before anyone could realize it, Tom Wilson, Alex Ovechkin, and Dylan Strome all scored to tie the game at three with just over two minutes left.

Thanks to some heroics from Evgeni Malkin, the Penguins walked away with a win in regulation, but they still seem to have an issue with closing out leads.

It’s been a problem plaguing the Penguins all season, and it needs to get resolved in the final nine games before the playoffs.

“We need to play a better third period, for sure,” Malkin said. “Lots of drama in the third period. I try to do my best.”

Malkin noted that the locker room is aware of how vital each point is, especially as other bubble teams like the New York Islanders and Florida Panthers lost.

“Huge goal for me, two points for the team,” Malkin said. “Every point is huge. Florida lost, Islanders lost.”

Ryan Poehling hasn’t played a ton of games recently due to an upper-body injury that has kept him off the ice, but he came up huge with the game’s opening goal against the Capitals.

“I think tonight, it was just a weird game,” Poehling said. “Tonight was an area where we could have done a better job in the second and third period.”

Before allowing the three goals in the third period, DeSmith was playing arguably the best game of his career with big save after big save.

Then came the third period, where the wheels didn’t necessarily fall off on DeSmith, but things went south.

“We get some tough bounces here and there,” DeSmith said. “Obviously things like taking care of the front of the net, staying out of the box. Stuff like that goes a long way to holding leads.”

Head coach Mike Sullivan has been searching for answers all season as to why the Penguins have struggled closing out leads.

In Sullivan’s eyes, it all boils down to being a harder team to play against and not allowing momentum to swing the opponents favor.

“I do think that we can do a better job in controlling leads by making better decisions with the puck,” Sullivan said. “Making it hard on our opponents and not giving them easy opportunities to get back in the game.”

The Penguins are happy to have the two points, but the game was far from perfect.

There are still plenty of issues to iron out, and prime amongst them has to be their issues with finishing games.

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