Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Tristan Jarry stops the puck during the first period of the team's NHL hockey game against the Washington Capitals, Saturday, May 1, 2021, in Washington.

WASHINGTON — Bryan Rust scored two unassisted goals, Tristan Jarry made 23 saves and the Pittsburgh Penguins shut out the Washington Capitals 3-O Saturday night to reclaim first place in the East Division.

Trade deadline pickup Jeff Carter also scored his fourth goal in 10 games in a Penguins uniform. Jarry registered his second shutout of the season as the Penguins beat the Capitals for the sixth time in eight meetings this season.

“We kind of just set a blueprint for ourselves on how we've got play to beat this team — things we've got to do kind of in the defensive zone, through the offensive zone and I think that's important moving forward,” said Rust, whose goals were the 99th and 100th of his NHL career.

Two nights after each team clinched a playoff berth, this potential postseason preview looked awfully lopsided. The Penguins pounced on opportunities and scored on three of their first 13 shots against Ilya Samsonov to suck the life out of the crowd of just over 2,000.

“Obviously, you're going to have games like this,” Washington's Nicklas Backstrom said. “They're a good team. They were playing good defensively. Tough loss.”

It was far from the complement of talent either team would want in a playoff series. The Capitals didn't have captain and leading goal-scorer Alex Ovechkin and top defenseman John Carlson because of lower-body injuries, and the Penguins remained without forward Evgeni Malkin and Brandon Tanev with injuries that have kept them out for several weeks.

But Pittsburgh hasn't slowed down. With captain Sidney Crosby inching into the MVP discussion, the Penguins have won 16 of 23 games without Malkin and again look like a legitimate Stanley Cup contender.

“It's just trying to put us in the best possible position come playoff time and I think that's our mindset,” Jarry said. “We want to do as well as we can in each game and try and finish the season strong and put us in a good position come the time the playoffs start.”

The Capitals didn't get the save they needed from Samsonov either when Garnet Hathaway fell down on Rust's first goal or when Dmitry Orlov couldn't get back after the puck bounced off him on Rust's second.

The Penguins got five saves from Jarry during a two-minute span late in the second period.