It was the 50th time that 32-year-old Crosby was pitted against Ovetjkin, 34, in terms of basic series meetings between the two top teams in the NHL.
Both stars have been red hot lately. The Russian goalie Ovetjkin had scored eleven goals in the last five games and climbed to eighth place in the NHL's goalable through the times with 695 hits.
Crosby had scored eleven points in six games after coming back from injury.
Both were speechless in the match, but Crosby was noted for an assist until Pittsburgh's 3-1 in the middle period through Dominik Simon.
By then Hörnqvist had ruled in the 2-1 goal in the first period with his twelfth goal of the season. He got some help from Washington's goalkeeper Ilja Samsonov who sadly missed the club and steered the puck into the final bit.
There was an intense and tough prestige meeting between the teams fighting for first place in the Metropolitan Division. Washington, who is also one in the Eastern Conference, retains the lead and is four points ahead of Pittsburgh.
Yevgeny Kuznetsov reduced to Washington after six minutes of the third period and then overtook Ovetjkin, Niklas Bäckström and the other home players with everything.
Lars Eller was awarded with his second goal of the match after 17.42, but then Brandon Tanev had scored 4 seconds before one of Pittsburgh's few chances in the final period 15 seconds before.