Capitals fall to Senators in overtime after blowing 3-1 lead

The Washington Capitals lost to the Ottawa Senators 4-3 in overtime after blowing a 3-1 lead.

The first period was scoreless as the Caps were outshot 16-4.

In the second period Alex Ovechkin had a breakaway snipe in front of the net for his 23rd goal of the season and 803rd of his career. He’s 91 away from Wayne Gretzky. The goal came at 1:15 and was assisted by Erik Gustafsson and Garnet Hathaway.

At 3:37 the Caps made it 2-0 on a shot from Dylan Strome for his seventh goal of the season with Conor Sheary and Nick Jensen providing the helpers.

Jake Sanderson got the Senators on the board at 8:30. Evgeny Kuznetsov responded at 15:56 on an assist from Jensen for his sixth goal of the season.

Tim Stuzle made it a 3-2 game at 19:44. That would be the score after two with the Caps trailing in shots 17-13 in the second period.

The Caps were outshot 10-6 in the third period and the Senators would get the equalizer from Alex DeBrincat at 14:26.

DeBrincat would win the game on the Senators second shot of overtime at 1:31. The Caps were outshot 45-23 overall. The Caps five game winning streak came to an end.

The Senators took advantage of a collision between Evgeny Kuznetsov and Dmitry Orlov that allowed Claude Giroux to feed DeBrincat on a 2 on 0 breakaway.

Kuznetsov said after the game:

“I don’t know. It was kind of wait, trying to avoid where [Giroux] is going to be. … So, yeah, it was my mistake, but only dead people don’t make mistakes, right? Unfortunately, that’s how it is. I take responsibility for sure.”

Goaltender Darcy Kuemper added:

“We got away a little bit from why we’ve been having such a good month. It will be easy to recognize and turn things around. Not worried from that standpoint. Got to make sure we are better next game.”

The Caps will look to bounce back tomorrow afternoon against the Montreal Canadiens in the final game of 2022. Puck drop is at 4 p.m. from Capital One Arena.