Sidney Crosby had a goal and an assist, and host Pittsburgh scored three times in the first period to beat the Washington Capitals, 5-3, last night and even their National Hockey League Eastern Conference semifinals series at 2-all.

Game 5 is tonight in Washington.

The Penguins have a chance to do what they did against the Capitals in 1992 and 1996, when they trailed 2-0 in both series only to rally to win. Washington trailed the New York Rangers 3-1 in the first round before winning the next three games.

Sergei Gonchar, Bill Guerin and Ruslan Fedotenko scored in the first for Pittsburgh to quickly turn a one-goal deficit into a two-goal lead.

HURRICANES ROLL

Eric Staal scored two goals and host Carolina pushed top-seeded Boston to the brink of elimination with a 4-1 victory to take a 3-1 lead in their NHL Eastern Conference semifinal. Game 5 is tomorrow night in Boston.

Jussi Jokinen scored the go-ahead goal at 2:52 of the third, and assisted on the two goals that followed. Sergei Samsonov added a goal for the Hurricanes.

AUTO RACING

KENSETH TRIUMPHS

Kyle Busch's flat tire with two laps left sent Matt Kenseth to his first Nationwide Series victory of the season — and capped a record-setting day at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, S.C.

Busch led 143 laps and looked like he would ease to victory last night. But a late collision brought out a caution and set up a two-lap sprint to the finish in the Diamond Hill Plywood 200.

That's when Busch's spotter noticed his right rear tire was flat. Busch tested the tire for several laps before rolling into the pits.

Kenseth, who earlier set a track record to win the pole for tomorrow's Southern 500, still faced a green-white-checkered finish. That, too, went Kenseth's way when Morgan Shepherd spun out on the restart, ending the race.

"It's been a good day for us," Kenseth said. "Let's hope it continues."

TENNIS

SAFINA IN ITALIAN FINAL

Top-seeded Dinara Safina rallied to beat fourth-seeded Venus Williams, 6-7 (3), 6-3, 6-4, and set up an all-Russian final with Svetlana Kuznetsova at the Italian Open yesterday in Rome.

The seventh-seeded Kuznetsova beat sixth-seeded Victoria Azarenka, a three-time title winner this year, 6-2, 6-4 in the other semifinal at Foro Italico.

AND WHAT'S MORE ...

Tournament host and top seed Novak Djokovic beat Viktor Troicki, 6-3, 6-2, to advance to the semifinals of the inaugural Serbia Open in Belgrade, Serbia. ... Konstantin Gorovikov's power-play goal with less than two minutes to play lifted Russia to a 3-2 victory over the United States and into the finals against Canada, which beat Sweden, 3-1, in the world hockey championships at Bern, Switzerland.