Vladimir Malkin ran into Alex Ovechkin between locker rooms in the bowels of Mellon Arena last night.

They spoke in Russian, but it was pretty obvious what the topic was -- the Washington Capitals winger's knee-on-knee hit that injured Penguins defenseman Sergei Gonchar, a teammate and close friend of Vladimir's son, Evgeni.

"I was disappointed, too," Ovechkin said. "I didn't want to hurt [Gonchar], but it's a game and some things happen."

Ovechkin, one of the biggest stars in the first two games of the second-round series against the Penguins, had to answer for a lot.

There were questions about whether he might be disciplined by the NHL, possibly a suspension for Game 5 tonight at the Verizon Center, for the hit on Gonchar.

And there surely are those who might wonder if he is available will he regain the megastar form he flashed earlier, or will he be busted to mere mortal status as he was the past two games?

"It's all on me," Ovechkin said quietly after he was held to two shots and a secondary assist in a 5-3 loss to the Penguins that tied the series at two games apiece.

Ovechkin had a goal in Game 1, a 3-2 win; a hat trick in Game 2, a 4-3 win; and a goal and an assist in Game 3, a 3-2 overtime loss. But he was not been as dominating in the two games at Mellon Arena as he was in Games 1 and 2 at the Verizon Center.

He had 21 shots over the first two games, seven over the past two.

Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau chafed some at the thought that Ovechkin let his team down and suggested some credit go to the Penguins, who didn't let Ovechkin get a head of steam going through the neutral zone and, on power plays, clogged the passing lanes so that Ovechkin often was open at his left point spot but wasn't getting the puck.

"[The Penguins] get the last change, and they did a good job, and they were desperate," Boudreau said. "Alex is only human. He can't be unbelievable every night.

"You take an analogy of baseball players. They don't hit home runs all the time. They can go eight games and then hit three, and everybody's back on the bandwagon.

"Alex is a good player -- he's a great player -- and he didn't have one of those nights where he's going to get three goals."

Earlier yesterday, Ovechkin offered a less than scintillating assessment of his performance in Game 3.

"I just didn't play well," he said. "I watched my shifts [on video]. The goal I scored was lucky.

"I just didn't skate. I didn't move my legs. [The Penguins] did their job, but it's not about them. It's all about me. It's my fault. [Linemates Sergei Fedorov and Viktor Kozlov] gave me nice passes to create something, but I didn't create because my legs just didn't run. I don't know why. My legs felt pretty good. I just didn't skate well."

Whether he gets to skate tonight is up to the NHL.

The extent of Gonchar's injury wasn't known. The play happened at 14:55 of the first period and resulted in a tripping penalty on Ovechkin.

This wasn't the first time Ovechkin injured Gonchar. He gave Gonchar a severe concussion with a hit in a Russian Super League game during the NHL lockout year of 2004-05 when Gonchar played for Metallurg Magnitogorsk and Ovechkin played for Dynamo Moscow. The two also have played together for Russia.

There is no animosity, Ovechkin insisted.

"[Gonchar] is a good guy. I tried to play the puck. He moved the puck forward. I tried to hit him. He moved to his left, and I didn't have time to [move out of the way] and hit him with my knee.

"It probably was knee on knee, but I tried to hit him with my shoulder and he just moved left."

Perhaps that's what he explained to Vladimir Malkin.

"We just talked about the hit," Ovechkin said.