Capitals Score Seven Unanswered Goals to Defeat Senators

Early on Tuesday night you could hear a pin drop at Capital One Arena. The Washington Capitals were trailing the Ottawa Senators, a team with the worst record in the east. It was very much looking like a trap game for the defending Stanley Cup champs but then they turned it on. Seven unanswered goals got the crowd back into it. The 7-2 win, coupled with the Islanders loss to the Flames, has put the Capitals back in first place in the Metropolitan Division. 

After Oscar Lindberg (3:16) and Anthony Duclair (7:10) put the Senators up 2-0, the Capitals would respond to tie it before the first intermission. First Michal Kempny created a turnover, then got the puck to Evgeny Kuznetsov. Kuznetsov dished it off to Alex Ovechkin, who found a wide-open Tom Wilson in front of the net. It was Wilson’s 18th goal of the season and the goal came at 16:57.

53 seconds later, we were all tied up at two. Andre Burakovsky, this time, helped create a turnover near the boards. Brett Connolly came up with the puck, passed across to Dmitry Orlov who found Lars Eller. Eller ripped a shot past Anders Nilsson for his eighth goal of the season.

The Capitals went on the power play two minutes into the second period. It would be their lone power play of the night and last penalty of the game. The Capitals killed a penalty in the previous period when Travis Boyd was called for slashing. This time around, Chris Tierney headed to the sin bin for tripping Burakovsky.

The Capitals retook the lead 38 seconds later with a John Carlson blast from the point for his 10th goal of the season. Carlson’s goal was the 87th of his career, passing Larry Murphy for sixth place on the Capitals goals by a defenseman list.

At 6:29 the Capitals went up 4-2 with a goal from T.J. Oshie. Oshie got a pass from Brooks Orpik and gave the puck a soft touch into the net. Nilsson couldn’t corral the puck.

Connolly scored at the 9:05 mark for his 16th goal of the season, a career-high. Connolly got that goal from following his own shot, continually making the night frustrating for Nilsson.

At 10:33, the Capitals executed another tic-tac-toe goal from Jakub Vrana, to Orlov, to Oshie who finished it for his second goal of the game and 20th of the season.

Then Kuznetsov flew into the scoring party with his 17th goal of the season 17 seconds into the third period.

That would be all the Capitals needed as they went on to defeat the Senators 7-2. They now sit at the top of the Metropolitan Division tied with the New York Islanders with 79 points each. Those two teams will meet on Friday night.