The Washington Capitals and Winnipeg Jets played an entertaining game on Saturday night at Capital One Arena as the team recognized the Dot Com Caps Era recognizing the Capitals from the 1997-2005. In the end the team fell 5-4 in overtime.
Cole Perfetti struck with a power play goal at 9:13 for his 11th of the season. Dylan Samberg followed with his fourth of the season at 12:41 and the Jets took a 2-0 lead into the break after one. The Jets led in shots 13-6.
Pierre-Luc Dubois put the Caps on the board with his 12th of the season at 1:12 in the second. John Carlson and Connor McMichael helped out with Carlson's 28th assist and McMichael's 21st.
Alex Ifallo responded at 4:03 to put the Jets back up by two. At 4:54, Taylor Raddysh answered with his fifth goal of the season with Matt Roy setting him up for his 11th helper. 3-2 Jets would be the score after two. Caps led in shots 10-8 in the middle frame.
Josh Morrissey made it 4-2 at 1:10 with his sixth goal of the season. Then the Caps ignited the comeback. Tom Wilson started it with his 21st goal of the season at 7:26. Dylan Strome notched his 35th assist of the season while Matt Roy had his 12th apple.
Then Alex Ovechkin would knot the score at 12:21 for his 24th goal of the season and the 877th of his career to bring him 18 goals away from passing Wayne Gretzky for the most NHL goals of all time.
Helping him out with the goal was Wilson with his 17th assist and Roy with his 13th. 4-4 would be the score after 60 as the Caps led in shots 12-7 in the third. In the overtime the Jets had the edge in shots 2-1 and would win the game thanks to Morrissey with his seventh on the year.
Winnipeg outshot Washington 30-29 overall. They also had the edge over Washington in face off percentage at 60 percent to 40 percent. Caps outhit the Jets 24-9 but were outblocked 14-13. Jets had 13 giveaways while the Capitals had 21. Caps had two takeaways while the Jets had four. Caps were in the sin bin for six minutes compared to the Jets four minutes while Washington went 0 for 1 on the power play and Winnipeg went one for two.
These teams will see each other again on March 25 in Winnipeg for the rematch. In the meantime, the Capitals will prepare for the Florida Panthers, who come to town Tuesday night at 7 p.m. on Monumental Sports Network.