POSTGAME NOTEBOOK: Caps 3, Sens 2 (OT)

Comeback Story -Scoring the game's first goal hasn't been much of a boon for the Capitals of late; they're just 1-4-1 in the last half dozen games in which they've scored first. On Saturday night at Capital One Arena, they flipped the script again, and again they came out on top in overtime.

Nicklas Backstrom dazzled the Saturday night crowd with a brilliant backhand goal at 1:13 of the overtime session to give the Caps a 3-2 victory over the Ottawa Senators in a game in which they trailed 2-0 entering the third period. Backstrom's swipe and snipe completed the Caps' second comeback from a 2-0 deficit - and subsequent overtime victory - in as many home games in less than a week.
Playing without three of their top four defensemen, the Caps turned in a strong defensive effort for 60-plus minutes, limiting Ottawa to 22 shots on net and little in the way of high danger scoring chances. Caps captain Alex Ovechkin sparked the comeback with two goals in the first half of the third period, tying the game and setting the stage for Backstrom's overtime heroics.
"Obviously we knew this was going to be a hard game, and we knew they were going to come out flying, and they're going to play physical," says Ovechkin of the Senators. "They're a young and fast team, and obviously their goalie makes a couple of big saves, especially in the second period.
"We just kept grinding around and tried to find a way to get a win like that. I think mentally it's good for us. With the situation how it is right now with injuries and COVID, we lost a couple of key players. But how we always say, there is no excuse. We just have to go out there and try to get the points."
Washington's makeshift defense got the job done, with Justin Schultz logging a single-game season high of 24:59 in ice time, and with Martin Fehervary right behind at 24:14. Michal Kempny (22:24) and Trevor van Riemsdyk (21:06) formed a solid second pairing while Matt Irwin and Dennis Cholowski were good as a more limited third pairing.
The first 40 minutes of Saturday's game were well south of scintillating, but the Caps kept with it and were able to thrive in the third.
"I thought we played really hard," says Laviolette. "And you need your captain and you need your leaders on the front of that rope, pulling. And I thought we were good.
"It didn't look good and it didn't smell good in the first period, but our guys were working. And when you walk away and you don't have any even strength shots [in the first], you say, 'Well, that was a miserable period.' But it wasn't; it was just a tight, fast period. And you had to play the hand that was dealt, and that was the hand that was dealt."
Saturday's game against Ottawa and Tuesday's 4-3 overtime win over Winnipeg are the only two games this season in which Washington has overcome a multi-goal deficit to earn two points.
Hey Nineteen - Saturday's game was Backstrom's ninth game of the season, and he has collected a point in seven of them, but this was his first multi-point game and his total of 18:42 was 16 seconds shy of the most he has skated in a single game in '21-22.
"I think I'm starting to get the timing back, obviously the conditioning too," he says. "I'm feeling better. I'm getting more touches. It's all about that, just to feel comfortable out there again."
Backstrom now has eight points (two goals, six assists) in his nine games this season, and four of his six helpers have come on Ovechkin goals. Backstrom is now just a dozen points shy of joining Ovechkin as the second player in Washington's franchise history to amass 1,000 points in a Caps' sweater.
We're Coming Out - Fehervary's Saturday night ice time total was a single-game career high. He has played alongside John Carlson as one of the team's two top blueline pairings since opening night, and he has been routinely swift and sturdy on a night in, night out basis in this, his rookie season in the NHL.
Fehervary's ice time total in Saturday's game was also the most by any Washington rookie defensemen in nearly a decade, since Dmitry Orlov skated 24:31 as a rookie in a March 8, 2012 contest against Tampa Bay.
Saturday's game was the 45th game of the 22-year-old Fehervary's career, and it was the 13th time he has exceeded the 20-minute mark in ice time. Six of those 20-minute nights have come consecutively, in Washington's last six games.
With Carlson (COVID-19 protocol), Orlov (NHL suspension) and Nick Jensen (upper body) all unavailable for Saturday's game, Fehervary and Schultz delivered a strong game as the Caps' top defensive duo.
"I thought the [defensemen] that jumped in there tonight - missing three [defensemen] and three big defensemen that take down a lot of minutes and two offensive guys and Jens, who we count on for so much - I thought the three guys [Cholowski, Irwin and Kempny] that went in there played excellent," says Laviolette. "The shots were low tonight, and the quality scoring chances were really low. I thought our defense did a terrific job, and so hats off to those guys for jumping into the lineup."
Great Eight Update - Ovechkin's two goals give him 29 for the season and 759 for his NHL career, moving him to within seven goals of Jaromir Jagr (766) for third place on the League's all-time goals ledger. The 29 goals ties Ovechkin for the League lead this season; the Rangers' Chris Kreider also has 29.
Ovechkin now has 35 career goals in 50 games against the Sens; only Jagr (44 goals in 79 games against Ottawa) has more.
Saturday's multi-goal game was the 155th of Ovechkin's career, moving him past Mario Lemieux (154) and into sole possession of third place on the NHL's all-time list, behind only Wayne Gretzky (189) and Brett Hull (158).
The 700 Club - Caps left wing Carl Hagelin skated in the 700th game of his NHL career on Saturday night against the Senators, doing so in the same building where he made his NHL debut just over a decade ago. A sixth-round (168th overall) draft choice of the New York Rangers in the 2007 NHL Draft, Hagelin was a star for four seasons at Michigan before turning pro in 2011-12. He opened that season with the AHL Connecticut Whale, but ascended to the NHL after just 17 games at that level. He's been in the NHL ever since, and his days playing for the legendary Red Berenson at Michigan likely helped limit the time he needed in the AHL.
"My main point when I went to Michigan was to graduate and get all those four years there, and I learned a lot there as a player and as a person," says Hagelin. "So by the time I turned pro, I think I was pretty mature and the jump from the lifestyle of college hockey to pro hockey wasn't that hard. I got used to the culture and everything, and that obviously helped me as well. It's been a fun ride."
Hagelin debuted here in Washington with the Rangers, facing the Caps in a Black Friday game on Nov. 25, 2011, and collecting an assist in a 6-3 New York win. A night later in the Big Apple, he scored his first NHL goal against Philly's Sergei Bobrovsky. Despite playing less than 12 minutes in each of his first four NHL games, he collected a point in each to start his career with a four-game point streak.
Hagelin is the 19th player from the 2007 Draft class to reach the 700-game plateau in the League, and he is the second sixth-rounder to do so, following in the skate-steps of his former Pittsburgh teammate and linemate, Nick Bonino. Bonino was chosen by San Jose, five picks after Hagelin.
Down On The Farm - The AHL Hershey Bears were home on Saturday night, hosting the Hartford Wolf Pack at Giant Center in the team's annual Teddy Bear Toss game. Hershey blanked the visitors 5-0 behind a 23-save effort from Pheonix Copley in the Bears' nets and a hat trick from Axel Jonsson-Fjallby. The sellout crowd came through with 52,341 stuffed creatures on the Teddy Bear Toss, and we hope those who had the task of counting the bounty are recovering nicely today.
Jonsson-Fjallby started the scoring with the teddy bear tally at 6:13 of the first, netting his 11th goal of the season on a Hershey power play with help from Shane Gersich and Alex Alexeyev. Brian Pinho scored his second of the season at 18:04 of the first, getting help from Garrett Pilon and Joe Snively to give the Bears a 2-0 lead at the first intermission.
Following a scoreless second, the Bears blew it open in the third. Snively notched an unassisted goal - his 12th of the season - just 23 seconds into the final frame to make it 3-0. That set the stage for Jonsson-Fjallby, who scored at 3:11 with assists from Toby Geisser and Pilon before completing the hat trick at 13:06, Pilon and Snively assisting.
Copley improved to 10-7-2 with the victory.
The 19-11-3-2 Bears now lead the AHL's Atlantic Division, and they're back in action on Sunday afternoon with a rematch against Hartford at Giant Center.
By The Numbers - Schultz led Washington in ice time … Evgeny Kuznetsov led the Caps with seven shots on net … Ovechkin led the Caps with a dozen shot attempts … Kempny, Ovechkin, Garnet Hathaway and Tom Wilson led Washington with four hits each … van Riemsdyk blocked four shots to lead the Caps … Lars Eller won seven of eight face-offs (88 percent)… Nic Dowd won 13 of 15 draws (87 percent) … Backstrom won 11 of 15 (73 percent) on the dot.