PITTSBURGH — Braden Holtby stayed on his stomach, sprawled in front of his net with his face turned down to the ice. He got up, skated to the bench and briefly buried his head in his hands.

The Washington Capitals had climbed out of a three-goal deficit to force overtime in a fight to extend their season. Sudden death is an appropriate name for it, and this 4-3 overtime loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 6 ended the Capitals' year in the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs again.

The three-goal rally was a testament to a resilience this team has shown all season, but “there's no silver linings when you lose,” defenseman Matt Niskanen said.

It also underscored a recurring theme of the Capitals, that they often saved their best for dire situations.

That's what put them in a 3-0 hole in the game and also a 3-1 series deficit. Both were too much to recover from.

But the legacy of his team will be another regular-season heavyweight Capitals team that again failed to reach the conference finals.

The playoffs are said to be a second season, and the Capitals' history here is a painful one — with a fresh new chapter.

“We've made some progress, but obviously, not enough,” Washington coach Barry Trotz said. “We need to get through this round. That's part of the deal.”

“Again we lost in the second round,” captain Alex Ovechkin said softly.

With the Capitals seemingly reeling throughout the overtime, Holtby stopped the first shot from Carl Hagelin, but the rebound squirted off his pad. Nick Bonino was there all alone in front of him, and he punched in the loose puck, setting off a Penguins celebration on the ice 6:32 into the first extra session.

“There's a lot of, ‘What ifs?'?” Holtby said. “But the biggest thing is we just didn't do enough little things to win a series.”

It looked like it was over earlier. They leaned forward on the bench, their forearms resting on the boards as they watched and waited — and then waited some more. It seemed they'd have to keep waiting until next season, the Penguins' 3-0 lead through the first half of the game just too much to overcome.

But with a blast in the third period, that bench leaped, the team's arms raised. That comeback the Capitals seemed to expect would come eventually did. John Carlson's shot on the power play tied the score at 3 with 6:59 left. Of all the ways for Washington to erase that deficit, it took three straight delay-of-game penalties for this Carlson goal to happen.

The penalties for sending the puck over the glass came within a three-minute span. Chris Kunitz's gave the Capitals a power play 10:32 into the third period. Bonino was then whistled for the same infraction 66 seconds later, giving Washington a five-on-three for 54 seconds. As soon as Kunitz's penalty was killed, Ian Cole went to the penalty box for the same thing.

On the second five-on-three, the Capitals' power-play wrinkle of Carlson and Alex Ovechkin swapping spots, with Carlson moving to the left faceoff circle, paid off. Carlson wildly fist-pumped, momentum squarely in Washington's favor after Pittsburgh seemed poised for a comfortable win. That goal set the stage for overtime.

“I think we could've had a little more killer instinct,” Carlson said.

The Capitals' comeback had also started with a power play. With Washington down 3-0 in the second period, Kunitz was called for tripping Marcus Johansson, and T.J. Oshie snapped in a pass from Nicklas Backstrom to get the Capitals on the board with 1:30 left in the period.