Washington Capitals blow late lead against Predators

The Washington Capitals thought they were going to escape Smashville with a huge win.

Instead, a late comeback by the Predators gave them their third straight loss. The Nashville Predators scored twice in the third period 28 seconds apart to stun the Washington Capitals 6-5.

The Caps took an early lead with Lars Eller‘s first goal of the season on a tic-tac-toe style play at 9:17 in the first. John Carlson fed Garnet Hathaway a cross-ice pass, Hathaway taped it to Eller for the slam dunk.

Filip Forsberg tied it just over a minute later at 10:39. 1-1 would be the score after 20 with Nashville having the edge in shots 13-9.

The Capitals went on the power play at 4:14 when Colton Sissons was called for high-sticking Jonas Sigenthaler and the unit finally ended their drought with an Alex Ovechkin goal from just outside the window of his office.

The Predators got one back from Ryan Johansen, the older brother of Capitals 2016 first round pick Lucas Johansen.

It wasn’t just the power play that connected. On the kill after Hathaway went to the box for interference, Tom Wilson finished a 2-on-1 rush at 12:28 for his first goal of the season.

The Caps went back to the power play at 17:11 when Roman Josi tripped Ovechkin and Ovi struck from the office once again 25 seconds later. It gave Washington a 4-2 lead heading into the final period. Carlson and Nicklas Backstrom were credited with the assists. For Backstrom, this contest marked his 900th career game.

4-2 was the score heading into the final period. The Predators outshot the Capitals 9-7.

The Predators refused to go down on their home ice and mounted a comeback in the third. Johansen added his second goal of the game at 5:03 and it became a 4-4 game 1:10 later when Matt Duchene scored.

At 10:09, T.J. Oshie gave the Caps the lead right back with his third goal of the season with a nice shot off a pass from Dmitry Orlov right through the legs of Pekka Rinne. .

That lead last just over a good four minutes until Nick Bonino tied it (remember him?)  and Mattias Ekholm gave the Predators the lead for good.

That was not only Washington’s third straight loss overall but their first defeat that came in regulation. The Predators outshot the Capitals 16-10 in the third and 38-26 overall. Braden Holtby stopped 32 of those 38 that he faced for a .842 save percentage.

The Capitals will look for payback this Saturday night in Dallas against the Stars after they fell short to them in overtime earlier this week.