Washington was again outshot — albeit by a more modest 28-22 this time. There were once more too many turnovers at the blueline. Against an offensive juggernaut like Pittsburgh, that steady dose of 2-on-1 and 3-on-2 breaks is as deadly as any poison. And for the first time in 10 postseason starts, rookie goalie Simeon Varlamov looked human. He allowed five goals on those 28 Penguins shots. Four of the five that slipped past were termed “soft goals” by Caps coach Bruce Boudreau, who said he still expected to start Varlamov in net Saturday night. The 21-year-old Russian has never played games on back-to-back nights in the NHL since making his debut Dec. 18.

It all added up to a second straight loss and a series now tied at 2 as the teams head back to the District to complete a grueling set of back-to-back playoff games on Saturday night.

“Right now it’s a best-of-three series. If we had known this going into the series I thought we’d be in a good position,” said Caps captain Chris Clark. “Momentum-wise they might think they have it. They played well. But I thought we played well tonight [too]. We just came up on the short end.”

It was an off night, too, for star left wing Alex Ovechkin, who was involved in what appeared to be a knee-on-knee hit against Pittsburgh defenseman Sergei Gonchar. The two Russians are countrymen and friends, sometimes training together back home in the summer. But the Penguins were furious about a hit behind the Pittsburgh goal that left Gonchar injured. He appeared to be favoring his left knee, skating off the ice for good in the first period after playing just 6 minutes, 10 seconds.

“Puck went behind the net and I chase it in and I try to hit him. He tried to move to his left. I don’t have time to know what is going on,” Ovechkin said. “But I hit my knee. That was accident. But I didn’t want him to get injured — especially I know Gonch and never want to hurt him.”

That’s little consolation to Pittsburgh, which will find out more about Gonchar’s injury Saturday morning. Penguins coach Dan Bylsma believes it was clearly a knee-on-knee hit and expected the NHL to review the incident and issue a fine and possibly a suspension. Several Pittsburgh players, including rugged defenseman Brooks Orpik, mentioned an “eye-for-an-eye” mentality that they will take into Game 5 in Washington.

That could mean a busy night for officials, who will be dealing with two tired teams desperate to wrest control of the series from the other. Game 6 is now guaranteed to take place at Mellon Arena on Monday night. The only question? Who will be facing elimination.

“It seems like when teams are in desperate situations they pull through. And Pittsburgh’s no different,” said Caps defenseman Mike Green. “They’re a great hockey club and they can turn it around just like that and they did these last two games. The good thing is we’re going back to our building.”

To a man, the Caps backed Varlamov, who allowed a tough one to Ruslan Fedotenko at 15:25 of the first period that slipped right through his catching glove. It is the second time in the series that has happened. But his defense left him out to dry plenty, too. The Penguins scored three of their four even-strength goals off odd-man rushes or defensive miscommunications. Green and Brooks Laich botched a clearing attempt that led to Bill Guerin’s goal at 10:47.

“If that’s his only [bad] game — he’s played unbelievable last series and this series,” Clark said. “If he gets it all out of him in one game that’s great. We have all the confidence in him. He’s played unbelievable coming into tonight.”