WASHINGTON -- During a season of change for the Washington Capitals, Braden Holtby has remained a constant.

Holtby made 27 saves to notch his 200th career victory and defenseman John Carlson had a goal and an assist as the Capitals defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-1 on Friday night.

Playing in his 319th career game, Holtby became the second-fastest goaltender in NHL history to reach 200 wins behind Montreal's Ken Dryden, who did it in his 311th appearance.

"It's an honor to be in the same sentence with him," Holtby said. "Both those teams that we played on help you get there. It's just luck in some ways and it's been a fun time getting to 200."

Holtby won his fifth straight start for Washington (9-7-1). The Capitals have permitted three or fewer goals in seven straight games.

"I think it's really impressive and we all know what Braden's capable of," Backstrom said of Holtby's milestone. "He can really steal games for us."

Washington's T.J. Oshie scored the go-ahead goal, his seventh goal of the season, in the second period, and Chandler Stephenson added an insurance goal when he beat Matt Murray from the slot off a pretty backhand pass from Nicklas Backstrom with 6:18 left to play.

Jakub Vrana added an empty-netter on the day he moved to the third line and Stephenson went to the first as coach Barry Trotz mixes tries different combinations as younger players replace departed and injured veterans.

"When you move people around, with the number of people we have coming back (soon from injury), you're always looking for competition," Trotz said. "I think the players realize that."

Phil Kessel was credited with the Penguins' goal. Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby, playing in his 800th career game, was held without a goal for the 10th straight game, thanks in part to Backstrom’s line.

Murray stopped 27 shots for Pittsburgh (9-7-2).

Washington came in with just an 18 percent success rate on power plays but converted on 2 of 6 attempts.

"Special teams was clearly the difference," Penguins coach Matt Murray said. "They get two power play goals and we don't. Five-on five the scoring chances were fairly even. It was a pretty even hockey game."

Pittsburgh was 0 for 4 with the man advantage, two of the chances coming with the Penguins trailing 2-1 in the third period.

"We had our opportunities, those power plays early in the third (were) probably our biggest opportunities to get back in the game and we weren't able to do that," Crosby said.

Washington took the lead on a power-play goal at 14:09 of the first period on a pretty passing sequence. Alex Ovechkin fed the puck across ice to Evgeny Kuznetsov, who sent it back to Carlson. His low shot deflected off the stick of Pittsburgh's Tom Kuhnhackl and past Murray.

It was just Washington's third home power-play goal of the season.

Pittsburgh tied it at 8:26 of the second period when Kessel's attempted pass across the slot to Evgeni Malkin was kicked into the net by Washington defenseman Dmitri Orlov, who was attempting to break up the play.

The Penguins' Kris Letang was called for a double-minor with 14:10 left in the period and Pittsburgh nearly killed it off before Oshie redirected Carlson's shot past Murray with one second left on the power play.

"It's tough. There's one second left on the kill and for the most part they really didn't get much," Murray said. "The killers were doing a really good job, so that was one of those goals that stung a little bit, but we've got to find a way to be more resilient."

Trotz agreed that the goal was a turning point.

"You get one of those long, lengthy power plays and you come out empty, the other team maybe gets a little momentum," Trotz said. "So we scored right at the end and any momentum they may have had dissipates quickly."

NOTES: Pittsburgh F Sidney Crosby became the third player in franchise history to appear in 800 games, joining Mario Lemieux (915) and Jaromir Jagr (806). ... Friday's game began a 29-day span in which the Capitals will play 11 of their 14 games at home. ... Capitals F Tom Wilson has penalty minutes in four straight games. ... The Penguins were minus assistant coach Mark Recchi, who is in Toronto and will be elected into the Hockey Hall of Fame on Monday night. Recchi has the 12th-most points in NHL history (1,533). ... Washington evened the season series 1-1.