Senators 3, Penguins 1 .

OTTAWA - While Sidney Crosby managed to keep his points streak alive, the Ottawa Senators got a rare winning streak.

Pittsburgh's star centre scored with 3:22 remaining to extend his streak to 24 games, but Erik Karlsson had two goals and an assist to lead Ottawa to a 3-1 win over the Penguins on Sunday night.

Jason Spezza also had three points for the Senators, but left in the second period with an upper-body injury.

Crosby's 30th goal, a backhand from in close, spoiled Brian Elliott's shutout bid. But Crosby, the NHL's leading scorer with 61 points, also had a couple of costly penalties.

"It wasn't a skill goal, but you just have to get the puck to the net," Elliott said. "I'll take the win any night and I won't care if he scores on me."

Mike Fisher scored the first of Ottawa's two power-play goals midway through the first after Crosby was sent off for hooking. Karlsson made it 2-0 at 13:42 during a delayed slashing call against Crosby, who also hooked Chris Phillips late in the second to negate a Penguins power play.

Spezza got his third assist on Karlsson's second goal of the game, another power-play effort 20 seconds into the middle period. Spezza left moments later after he was checked into the boards from behind by Kris Letang.

"I saw him going to the puck and he kind of turned his back so I didn't want to hit him, so I put my two hands around him," Letang said. "I think he tripped before and it kind of looked bad on the play."

Elliott turned aside 44 shots, including 22 in the second period, as Ottawa won consecutive games for the first time since a season-high four-game winning streak in early November.

"It was a very good win and we showed that we are still a very good team," Karlsson said.

Marc-Andre Fleury made 21 saves for Pittsburgh, which had won 16 of 18, including three in a row.

Karlsson got the first of his three points 9:14 in when his shot deflected off Pittsburgh defenceman Paul Martin's stick and struck Fisher on its way past Fleury.

With a delayed penalty called signaled against Crosby, Spezza had time to come off the bench to replace Jarkko Ruutu and get the second of his three assists when Karlsson scored on a shot from the point.

The Swedish defenceman made it a three-goal lead with his eighth of the season early in the second.

Fleury made a spectacular glove save on Nick Foligno's penalty shot 10:30 into the third. Foligno was hooked on a breakaway before he put a backhand through Fleury but Pittsburgh's Chris Kunitz scooped the puck away barely before it entirely crossed the goal line.

NOTES: A sellout crowd of 20,146 took in the game at Scotiabank Place ... Phillips played his 900th regular-season game, all of them with the Senators. Only Alfredsson (1,039) has suited up for more games in an Ottawa uniform ... The Senators are home to the Carolina Hurricanes on Wednesday night (7:30 p.m., Sportsnet East, Team 1200).