Puppy sleep schedule

I just need a bit of advice from other people. 1.5 weeks ago, my husband and I brought home our new puppy (Lab/Australian Shepherd mix, 11 weeks old). To be honest, we both pretty much immediately fell into puppy blues because we realized how easy our life had been before (no kids) but after two or three days we acclimated and seem to be getting along quite well.

We have been crate training her which is going well but we're struggling a little with her sleep schedule. She will not put herself into bed when she's tired – in the mornings and during the day she might lay down to take a nap (we have been motivating her to take those in the crate as she otherwise changes place every 3 minutes). But in the evenings everything we built up just goes flying out the window. She becomes a literal demon, barking at us and nipping at our feet and calves. I have been reading a lot about how that comes from them being overstimulated and overly tired. The issue is: that is starting around 6pm and will not stop until we actually put her in her box (usually around 9pm). These 3 hours are just pure horror as we can not interact with her in any way. In general she is not able to play calmly. I've read so much about how we should be playing with her in the evening, most sites tell you to engage in light interaction, snuggles etc. If I snuggle my puppy in the evenings I can be glad if I go out there with all my fingers and both of my eyes. She is just really wild (or probably not wild but just overly tired and overstimulated).

Which leads me to my question: is anyone here putting their puppy to bed significantly earlier than they go to bed? I feel like we should be crating her at 6 but I'm scared this might mean she will want to get up at 3 in the night.

Oh and yes, we have just bought a play pen and will try to have her there but I'm really struggling here as I feel like I'm not allowed to interact with her from 5pm to night time, otherwise she will just get wilder and wilder.

Sorry for the vent, maybe someone has some recommendations for us. Thanks!