Ronald Petrovicky wasn't fooling anyone when he showed mock surprise at being surrounded by reporters yesterday in the Penguins' locker room.

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"Are you sure you want me?" the winger asked, looking around at stars such as Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Marc-Andre Fleury.

Petrovicky was much more convincing earlier, when he beat Washington goaltender Olaf Kolzig midway through the second period to break up a scoreless game and send the Penguins to their season-high sixth consecutive win, 2-0, at Mellon Arena.

Goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 30 shots for his second shutout of the week, rookie Jordan Staal added an empty-net goal and both teams displayed strong defense and stronger penalty-killing as the Penguins helped solidify their spot among the playoff hopefuls while the Capitals sank further from the postseason picture.

The win gave the Penguins 60 points, boosting them past the 58 they collected all last season. The previous time the Penguins won six in a row was Jan. 17-26, 2002. The last time they won seven in a row was eight years ago. They won 10 in a row between Jan. 28-Feb. 15, 1999.

In a game heavy on offensive stars Crosby, Malkin and Alex Ovechkin of Washington -- players who combined for just one point, Malkin's assist on Staal's empty-netter -- Petrovicky was an unlikely but welcome hero.

"He's been in the league a while. He battles hard, makes the right plays," Penguins winger Ryan Malone said.

"It's kind of his chance. He wasn't in the lineup for a while, but the door opened and he's taking advantage of the opportunity."

Petrovicky, 29, was playing in just his 18th game since signing with the Penguins as a free agent last summer. He had preseason hip surgery, knocking him out of the first 13 games this season, and has been a healthy scratch for 20 others.

His two goals and four points have come in the past four games.

Elevated to the third line with center Maxime Talbot and winger Erik Christiansen because a sprained knee forced Colby Armstrong to miss the game, Petrovicky shattered what had been a defensive struggle at 10:09 of the second period with an unassisted goal.

After Capitals winger Eric Fehr's spinning backhand shot went wide of the Penguins' net, Petrovicky collected the puck and carried it down the right side.

He pulled up at the top of the circle and unleashed a wrist shot that scooted under Kolzig's outstretched right leg and into the far side of the net.

"Ovechkin fell in the corner, and I grabbed the puck," Petrovicky said. "It was pretty much three-on-three. I just took a shot and was lucky it went in."

Kolzig stopped 19 shots and was outdone by Fleury, who earned his third shutout this season and the sixth of his career. He stopped 32 shots Tuesday in a 3-0 victory against Florida and beat Philadelphia, 4-0, in the season opener.

"He was phenomenal again," Penguins coach Michel Therrien said of Fleury, who is 6-0-1 in his past seven starts and 24-12-6 this season.

Fleury can't account for his improvement in recent weeks.

"I don't really feel different," he said. "I just take it one shot at a time. My team's helping me a lot. They block shots, they take rebounds away. That's a huge help for the goalie."

So is strong penalty-killing.

Despite being without Armstrong, a primary penalty-killer, the Penguins squelched all four Washington power plays, limiting the Capitals to four shots, all on the first of those man-advantages.

Dominic Moore and Jarkko Ruutu helped fill in for Armstrong.

"We just tried to stay in the passing lanes, and it worked for us," Staal said.

When they weren't clogging the passing lanes, the penalty-killers were in Washington's end, eating up time and creating a few scoring chances.

"You just want to be careful and not turn it over and kill as much time as you can down in their end," Malone said.

"We ended up doing that a couple of times and got a couple of chances. Next time, hopefully, we'll bury a couple."

Washington killed the Penguins' three power plays but couldn't muster enough on offense to get a goal.

Petrovicky's goal was the seventh winner of his career and first with the Penguins.

"He's been playing great for us," Penguins defenseman Mark Eaton said. "To be able to spread the scoring out like that and get everybody involved, that's going to be key for us down the stretch run."