Overtime is Ovechkin Time in 4-3 Win over Winnipeg

Delivered slightly later than expected via a power-play one-timer from Alex Ovechkin's office, Washington's fourth straight win may also come with a cheap lesson for the Caps. Before prevailing 4-3 over the Winnipeg Jets on Ovechkin's overtime game-winner, the Caps lost the handle on a three-goal lead in a nine-minute span of the third period.

Good teams find a way to win, and the Caps managed to overcome the Jets at Verizon Center on Thursday, two nights after the Jets rebounded from a two-goal deficit and nearly forced overtime against the Capitals in Winnipeg.

"It's early [in the season]," says Caps right wing T.J. Oshie. "Maybe [it's a] a good thing that we can look at this. We weren't really hooting and hollering in here [after the win]. We were let down that we didn't play the way we wanted to, but glad we found a way to get a win. So we'll take this as a learning experience and move on and hopefully we can be better from it."

Washington's big guns delivered on Thursday; Ovechkin scored twice while both he and Nicklas Backstrom enjoyed three-point nights. Backstrom and Oshie also scored for the Caps, and John Carlson chipped in with two helpers. The second of those came on Carlson's sublime, no-look tee up of Ovechkin's game-winner.

Early in the game, goaltender Braden Holtby was the Caps' best player. He stopped all 11 Winnipeg shots he saw in the first, including three while Washington was shorthanded.

Starting a three-game road trip, the Jets turned in a strong first period but still found themselves down to the Caps by a goal after the game's first 20 minutes. The Capitals managed only four shots on net the first period, but one of them found its way behind Jets goalie Michael Hutchinson.

Hutchinson stopped Ovechkin's wrist shot from the slot, but Backstrom collected the rebound and calmly backhanded it home at 5:22. The Caps have yet to trail at any point of the first period through 10 games this season.

Winnipeg's Mark Scheifele's deflection try rang iron in the first minute of the middle frame, but that was as good as it got for the Jets during the period.

"I thought we were flat right out of the gate; a lot of turnovers," says Caps coach Barry Trotz. "I thought Holts made some real big saves for us. We got a timely goal. And then I think we woke up once [Scheifele] hit the post on the first shift of the second period."

A minute or so after Scheifele's near miss, the Caps doubled their lead.

As Oshie found a soft spot in Winnipeg's net-front coverage, Andre Burakovsky fed him from behind the Jets net. Oshie slid a backhander past Hutchinson for a 2-0 Caps lead at 1:48.

Washington dominated for most of the second, holding the Jets without a shot on net for nearly nine minutes at one stretch, while also padding their lead. During a long offensive zone shift, the Capitals top line of Backstrom, Ovechkin and Justin Williams was able to wear down Winnipeg's third defensive pairing, culminating in Ovechkin's backhand putback of a Carlson shot at 10:04.

The Caps navigated their way into the third period with that three-goal lead intact, the first time this season they've led by that much after 40 minutes of play. And when Winnipeg's Nikolai Ehlers was nailed for hooking early in the third, it seemed as though the Caps had a chance to put the Jets away.

Instead, it became the first dent in Washington's lead.

Jets captain Blake Wheeler hassled Carlson as the latter skated the puck up ice, and Carlson's cross-ice backhand pass was picked off by Winnipeg blueliner Toby Enstrom, who scored a shorthanded goal into an empty net when Holtby and Carlson collided well above the paint in the Washington end.

"Every moment counts," says Trotz. "You talk about big moments, it's 3-0 and we're on the power play, and they had a push going on. We drew a penalty. If we're able to manufacture something on that power play - maybe get that fourth goal - maybe the game is over at that point. And we didn't, and we sort of let them back in. They chipped away, they got another goal, and all of a sudden we're playing in overtime."

Enstrom's goal came at 2:11, and it was the first of three in nine minutes. Winnipeg's bottom six did the damage; Adam Lowry finishing a fine feed from Dustin Byfuglien at 5:23 and Marko Dano pouncing on a loose puck in the slot at 11:11 to tie the game at 3-3.

That set the stage of Ovechkin's overtime heroics, and he buried the 18th overtime game-winner of his career off Carlson's steely no-look feed with Oshie providing a screen in front of Hutchinson.

Washington dominated the three-on-three overtime session, holding the puck for virtually the first 100 seconds of the extra period, forcing Winnipeg to ice the puck. That prompted Jets coach Paul Maurice to use his timeout to rest his tired trio. The Jets dodged that bullet, but afterwards were whistled for having too many men on the ice, a call that incensed Maurice.

"It was horse[bleep]," fumes Maurice, "so that would be hard to swallow. But I can't blame the referees on it, because the linesman called it, which is important. But he involved himself in the game at that point. I don't think it was too many men on the ice. I don't even think it was that close."

Despite frittering away a multiple goal lead for the fourth time in 10 games this season, the Caps have now won three of those games.

"The first period, we had too many turnovers and were sloppy in our passing," says Backstrom. "The second period we played better and we got rewarded. And obviously you can't relax in the third period. Teams are too good."

The Caps have a couple more good teams ahead on this homestand in Florida on Saturday and San Jose on Tuesday. They know they'll need to be better for more minutes to keep that four-game winning streak going, and that's the cheap lesson.
Getting It Done - Much of it wasn't pretty, but the Capitals extended their winning streak to four on Thursday night at Verizon Center with a 4-3 overtime victory over the Winnipeg Jets at Verizon Center, the Caps' fourth game in four different time zones in a span of six nights. Alex Ovechkin's power-play goal in overtime tipped the two points to Washington.

The Caps scuffled in the first period and struggled in the third. They dominated in the second and in overtime, and it was just enough to overcome a plucky Jets team that erased a three-goal deficit with three goals of their own in a span of nine minutes in the third period.

"A little sloppy from our side," says Caps center Nicklas Backstrom, "but at the same time we're really lucky we got away with two points."

Playing the Jets for the second consecutive game and playing at home for the first time since returning from a weeklong road trip through western Canada, the Caps started slowly but managed to take a 1-0 lead to the first intermission, thanks to Backstrom's rebound goal and strong netminding from Braden Holtby.

In the second, the Caps took control. They outshot the Jets 18-5, scored twice and held the Jets without a shot on net for nearly nine minutes. On both Washington goals in the middle period, the Capitals were able to exploit Winnipeg's patchwork third defensive pairing. On the second of those goals, the Caps were able to get Backstrom's line - with Ovechkin and Justin Williams - on for a long offensive zone shift against Ben Chiarot and Julian Melchiori, two blueliners who wouldn't be in the lineup if Winnipeg's blueline wasn't plagued with injuries to Tyler Myers and Mark Stuart and Jacob Trouba's contract dispute. The Caps ran Chiarot and Melchiori ragged in their own end for nearly a minute and a half before Ovechkin swept home a rebound to give the Caps a 3-0 lead.

"I thought we simplified things," says Backstrom, when asked what made Washington so effective in the middle period of Thursday's game. "It's all about getting the puck deep there and trying to outwork them.

"The first period, we had too many turnovers and were sloppy in our passing. The second period we played better and we got rewarded. And obviously you can't relax in the third period. Teams are too good."

OviTime -Ovechkin's game-winning goal was the 18th overtime goal of his career, second most in league history behind only Panthers winger Jaromir Jagr.

Ovechkin's overtime winner was the second of his career against the Winnipeg franchise; the first came on Dec. 15, 2006 when the Jets were still stationed in Georgia and known as the Atlanta Thrashers. The Caps won that game 3-2, with Ovechkin scoring all three goals. The overtime game-winner came just six seconds after puck drop in the extra session, setting a Washington franchise standard for fastest overtime goal.

Ovechkin has recorded more points (88, on 45 goals and 43 assists) against the Atlanta-Winnipeg franchise, more than he has posted against any other foe in the league.

Sixteen With A Bullet -Ovechkin's game-winning goal was the 91st of his NHL career, tying him with Wayne Gretzky and Mark Recchi for 16th place on the NHL's all-time list.

Ovechkin has notched three game-winners in the early going of 2016-17, tied for the league lead with Chicago's Artem Anisimov and Montreal's Shea Weber. The Caps' captain has led the NHL in goals three times, notching 11 game-winners in each of those seasons (2007-08, 2010-11 and 2014-15). He has reached double-digits in game-winners in two other seasons as well, totaling 10 twice (in 2008-09 and 2013-14).

Next up on Ovechkin's personal hit parade are Mike Modano, Jeremy Roenick and Mark Messier. That trio is currently tied for 13th on the league's all-time list with 92 career game-winning goals. Jagr is the league's all-time leader with 133.

Finally Got Him - Caps winger Tom Wilson entered Thursday's game as the only Washington skater who had played in every game and yet had not been on the ice for any even-strength goals against all season.

Wilson's streak went by the wayside at 11:11 of the third period when Jets forward Marko Dano scored to tie the game at 3-3. Wilson had played 104 minutes and 50 seconds of even-strength hockey without a blemish before Dano scored.

First Things First -With Backstrom's goal in the first period, the Caps have now scored the game's first goal in nine of their 10 games this season. Washington has outscored the opposition by a combined 13-4 in the game's first 20 minutes this season, and it has yet to trail at any point in the first period in 2016-17.

Backhanded Complement -Each of Washington's first three goals in Thursday's game was scored with a backhanded shot from Backstrom, T.J. Oshie and Ovechkin, respectively. That gives the Caps a total of four backhanded goals on the season, tied for fifth most in the NHL.

Two Up -When Oshie scored early in the second period of Thursday's game, it gave the Caps a 2-0 lead for the fourth straight game and for the seventh time in eight games. When Ovechkin netted his first goal of the game later in that frame, it marked just the second time the Caps had been able to convert one of those 2-0 leads into a 3-0 advantage.

The Caps have now squandered multiple-goal leads four times in 10 games, but they've also managed to win three of those four contests.

Moving Up - Caps defenseman John Carlson had two assists in Thursday's game, including a no-look feed to Ovechkin on the overtime game-winner. With his first assist of the night, Carlson passed Rod Langway on the Caps' all-time list of assists by a defenseman.

Carlson now has 179 assists as a Capital, 16 behind Sylvain Cote for seventh place on the list. Calle Johansson is Washington's all-time leader in most career assists by a defenseman with 361.

Multiple Men -Ovechkin joined the parade of Caps who have scored two goals in a game this season, posting the sixth multiple-goal game of the season for Washington in just 10 games this season.

Ovechkin also recorded the 87th three-point game of his career and the 109th multiple-goal game of his career.

By The Numbers - Matt Niskanen led the Capitals with 24:53 in ice time … Ovechkin led the Caps with eight shots on net and nine shot attempts … Brooks Orpik led Washington with five hits and three blocked shots … Evgeny Kuznetsov won 15 of 15 face-offs (67%).