Johansson Wins it for Caps in OT, 3-2

After winning just two of their first 10 road games of the season, the Caps have now reeled off five road wins in a row after Thursday's 3-2 overtime victory over the Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre. Marcus Johansson's goal at 2:04 of overtime made a winner of Darcy Kuemper (23 saves), who was making his first start since Dec. 3.

Johansson jumped off the bench and took a feed from Erik Gustafsson, who had carried out of the Ottawa zone so the Caps could make a change. Johansson scooted up the middle of the ice and put on a burst to blow past two of the three Ottawa skaters on the ice, all of whom were forwards, and all of whom had logged at least 57 seconds on that shift. From between the circles, Johansson ripped a wrist shot to beat Sens goalie Cam Talbot to the stick side, giving the Caps their eighth win in nine games.

"I just saw [Conor Sheary] get off the ice and we made a great change when we had possession of the puck," recounts Johansson. "Once Gus got it to me, I saw that they were kind of tired and saw a little bit of a hole and felt like I could beat him."
The Capitals carried a 2-1 lead into the third, but they ran into some penalty woes in the final frame, being tasked with killing a double-minor just 18 seconds into the period and two more minors later on. The Caps faced down six Ottawa power plays on the night, matching the most they've faced in one game this season (Oct. 31 at Carolina).
In 27 of their 35 games this season, the Caps have faced fewer penalty killing missions than they encountered in just the third period of Thursday's game. The six Ottawa power plays broke up a streak of 13 straight games in which Washington has faced fewer than four penalty killing situations in a game.
"All eight minutes are accidental," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette of the spate of penalties the Caps took in the third. "I don't think [Evgeny Kuznetsov's] was a penalty, but the other six minutes were just accidental from guys playing hard. It's one thing to be undisciplined, and it's another thing to be unlucky. And we were unlucky with the eight minutes called against us."
Ottawa struck first, taking a 1-0 lead at 4:50 of the first when Alex DeBrincat deflected a Nick Holden left point shot past Kuemper, who didn't see much action in the first half of the game. As the game moved past its midpoint, the Sens were still stuck on single-digit shot totals.
Less than two minutes after DeBrincat's opening salvo, the Caps went on the game's first power play and they took advantage of the extra-man opportunity to square the score. After taking a cross-ice feed from Ovechkin, Kuzentsov briefly surveyed from the right dot. Then he fired toward the net, hoping to hit Dylan Strome for a redirect. Instead, it caught an Ottawa stick, then hit the inside of the far post and went in, tying the game at 1-1 at 7:01 of the first.

Each team had two extra man opportunities in the first, with some overlap and some 4-on-4 time factoring into the second power plays on each side.
Early in the second, the Caps went on the power play for a third time. And while they didn't score with the man advantage, they did so seconds after the penalty expired. From center point, Dmitry Orlov teed up Caps captain Alex Ovechkin from his left dot office. Seeking the goal that would tie Gordie Howe (801) for second place on the NHL's all-time list, the captain let a one-timer fly, and it trickled through Talbot and wobbled near the goal line until Sonny Milano reached in and nudged it over the line for the Caps' first lead of the night, 2-1 at 5:25 of the second.
Kuemper made a good stop on a Parker Kelly backhander from in tight late in the second, one of the few challenging stops he needed to make to that point. In the final half-minute of the second, Talbot robbed Orlov to keep the Sens within a goal heading into the third period.
With Milano in the box for a double-minor for hi-sticking, the Caps killed off the front half only to have Drake Batherson even the game at 2-2 on a shot from the slot at 3:04.
A phantom offensive zone tripping call on Kuznetsov sent Washington back to the kill at 9:32 and the Caps faced a sixth kill later in the third when Nicolas-Aube Kubel was boxed for hi-sticking. Ottawa called its timeout with under a minute left on the Kuznetsov penalty, but Kuemper and the Caps held firm, and Trevor van Riemsdyk - who briefly left the game after catching a shot to the helmet late in the second - swept the crease to save a goal on the final kill of the night.
"I saw it back there, and I was actually going to reach for it," says Kuemper. "And then I saw him coming, and I was like, 'I'm going to stay out of the way.'"
"I was just coming back to the net like [assistant coach] Scotty [Allen] tells us when a puck gets delivered to the net on the PK," says van Riemsdyk. "I just kind of followed it a little bit and saw it just pop through, and luckily enough they didn't have a guy sitting there and I was able to just whack it out."
Kuemper made 11 of his 23 saves in the third period, with seven of them coming on the Ottawa power play. One of his best late stops came on Holden's weak side shot from the inside of the left circle, midway through the third.
Ovechkin was held without a goal for the fourth straight game - matching his longest dry spell of the season. But he picked up a pair of assists and broke the all-time NHL record for most career shots on goal in the third period, passing Raymond Bourque (6,209), a mark that stood for a couple of decades.
"It's pretty cool," says Ovechkin. "To be No. 1 in any category is pretty special. I'll take it."
van Riemsdyk's defensive heroics set the stage for Johansson, and the Caps will head home to host Winnipeg on Friday in their final game ahead of the NHL's three-day holiday break.