PITTSBURGH – For how often these two teams have played each other, for how competitive their games have traditionally been, for how they have dominated the rest of the league the past three years, it was fitting they needed more time to determine a victor on Thursday night.

Capitals forward T.J. Oshie single-handedly erased a two-goal deficit in 21 seconds to force overtime. But then 19 seconds in, Evgeny Kuznetsov was called for hooking Sidney Crosby, putting the Penguins on a four-on-three power play. Defenseman Kris Letang’s slap shot decided things for now, lifting Pittsburgh to a 7-6 win over Washington in a wild first meeting of the new season.

The teams have combined to win the past three Stanley Cups, and they’re still testing themselves against each other as one will likely have to get past the other for another crack at the trophy.

“The last three years, you can argue we were the two best teams in the league,” defenseman Brooks Orpik said. “We just happened to beat each other in the second round. I don’t really see that changing much this year.”

The Penguins are the standard the Capitals are now chasing. Washington has set a goal of repeating as Stanley Cup champions, and Pittsburgh’s titles in 2016 and 2017 – which both featured second-round series wins over Washington – marked the first time a team went back-to-back in nearly two decades. The Penguins are still fuming that the Capitals were the team to oust them from the postseason in May, and Thursday night’s win was a small bit of revenge.

“They’ve done something that we’re trying to do,” Capitals coach Todd Reirden said before the game. “Just as much as that’s something that they want to focus on trying to be better at and get back something that was theirs, we’d like to duplicate something they’ve done in the past.”

Past Capitals trips to Pittsburgh have resurrected bad memories of past playoff disappointments, the Penguins’ Stanley Cup banners reminders of opportunities lost. But as Washington reviewed its most recent video from playing against Pittsburgh, they took pleasure from watching for a change. The last time the Capitals were in PPG Paints Arena, center Evgeny Kuznetsov scored on a breakaway in overtime of Game 6 to advance to the Eastern Conference final for the first time in 20 years.

“It’s always a test, now maybe even more so than before because we both have a championship now,” Oshie said. “It’s a lot different coming into this barn having just won than them having just beat you.”

But playing a second game in as many nights, the Capitals were shaky to start the game. Defenseman Jamie Oleksiak scored through a moving screen in front of goaltender Braden Holtby in the first two minutes. Seventy-nine seconds later, forward Andre Burakovsky had a defensive zone turnover, and with the puck suddenly on his stick, center Sidney Crosby charged the net. Holtby was aggressive, skating up to make a toe save on Crosby’s backhand chance.

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