WASHINGTON -- Washington Capitals coach Barry Trotz said he needed his top players to step up in Game 5 against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

They certainly did.

Nicklas Backstrom, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Alex Ovechkin scored third-period goals, Braden Holtby made 20 saves and the Capitals defeated the Penguins 4-2 on Saturday night to stay alive in their Eastern Conference semifinal.

After Backstrom tied it, Kuznetsov and Ovechkin scored 27 seconds apart to send the Capitals, who trail 3-2, back to Pittsburgh for Game 6 on Monday night.

"It's amazing," Washington left winger Andre Burakovsky said. "That's just what we need. In these tight games, we need our best players to step up and do the hard work and be difference makers and I think that's what they were tonight."

Burakovsky stepped up as well. Trotz shook things up by moving Burakovsky up to the top line and Ovechkin to the third line. Burakovsky had a goal and an assist as the top three lines all produced goals.

"When I talked to Alex, I told him we needed to change it up. Top players make people better," Trotz said. "I was looking to try to give us a little more depth scoring and I said, 'Alex, I'm asking you to go down and go with (Eller and Tom Wilson).' It’s a big line, they needed some finish."

Pittsburgh took a 2-1 lead into the third period, but Washington tied it at 2:49 when Backstrom and Burakovsky worked a give-and-go on the rush and Backstrom's wrister beat Marc-Andre Fleury to the far side.

"That was a huge, huge goal by Backy," Ovechkin said. "We start believing."

Kuznetsov then gave Washington a 3-2 lead when he beat Fleury from just in front of the end line at 7:20 of the third.

"Bad," Kuznetsov said of his angle on the shot.

Ovechkin, after his initial shot on the rush was blocked by defenseman Ron Hainsey, got the puck back and wristed it past Fleury for his fifth goal of the playoffs.

"We had our chances to build on that (2-1) lead and we didn't," said Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby, who, along with Conor Sheary, returned just five days after suffering a concussion.

In 19 career games when facing elimination, Ovechkin has 10 goals and 10 assists.

Pittsburgh pushed back, but Holtby made several very good stops to maintain the two-goal lead.

"We had some opportunities, we had some high-quality chances, we didn't convert," Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said.

Carl Hagelin gave the Penguins 1-0 lead in first period and Phil Kessel put them up 2-1 in the second.

Evgeni Malkin picked up an assist and has 17 points (four goals, 13 assists) in 10 playoff games.

Fleury made 28 saves.

"The last one's always the hardest to get," he said of the loss. "Disappointing, but we move on."

Despite being outshot early once again, the Penguins took a 1-0 lead on Hagelin's first goal of the playoffs at 10:24 of the first period.

After Hainsey kept the puck in the zone along the right boards, Nick Bonino one-timed a pass to Hagelin in the slot. Hagelin was able to deftly direct the puck from his skate to his stick and fired a wrister that deflected off Holtby and in.

Burakovsky, playing on the third line during this shift, took a drop pass from Kevin Shattenkirk as he entered the zone, toe-dragged the puck by a defender and wristed a shot past Fleury on the short side for his first goal of the playoffs with 30 seconds left in the period.

"We obviously gave them life when they got that first goal. We thought we had pretty good control of the game at that point," Sullivan said. "We talked about being strong at the lines and that's an important part of winning. I thought that goal was avoidable."

It was the first Capitals' first goal from a bottom-six forward in the series.

"Today we just stayed patient," said Lars Eller (two assists). "Played on our toes still but stayed patient and didn't try to do too much and we got rewarded. This was probably our best 60 minutes of the series."

Pittsburgh regained the lead early in the second period on a pretty passing sequence on a power play. Malkin, in the right circle, took a pass from Crosby and then fed through the slot to Kessel, who beat a sliding Holtby at 4:20 for his fifth goal of the playoffs.

NOTES: Nicklas Backstrom's goal gave him 11 points (five goals, six assists) in 11 postseason games. He moved ahead of Dale Hunter on the Capitals' career postseason points list with 73. ... With his assist, Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby tied Mario Lemieux's franchise playoff record of 96 assists. ... During the Crosby/Evgeni Malkin era, the Penguins are 16-14 (1-2 this year) in games when they can eliminate an opponent. ... The Capitals scored first in 58 of 82 regular-season games but in only four of 11 postseason games. They gave up the first goal four times against the Penguins.