Sens, DeBrincat Cool Off Caps, 4-3

Washington's five-game winning streak came to a halt on Thursday night against Ottawa when the Caps suffered a 4-3 overtime loss to the Senators at Capital One Arena. Alex DeBrincat's second goal of the game put an end to the evening at 1:31 of the extra session; he finished a Claude Giroux feed on a 2-on-0 rush that followed an Evgeny Kuznetsov turnover at the Ottawa line.

Kuznetsov had the puck and carried into Ottawa ice, but suddenly halted just inside the line where he was clustered with Alex Ovechkin and Dmitry Orlov. Giroux forced the turnover and the Sens were off to the races, and victory.
"[Giroux] did a great job kind of bringing them all together and bolted right by them," recounts DeBrincat. "He made a good pass, too. It's all him, and I'm just there to reap the benefits."
"Unfortunately, at the end of the game, a couple of my mistakes cost us the win," rues Kuznetsov. "Sometimes, that's how it is."
DeBrincat's first goal of the game tied it at 3-3 with 5:34 left in regulation. Kuznetsov got his pocket picked in the right circle of the offensive zone on that one, leading to an odd-man rush in the opposite direction. Shane Pinto and DeBrincat worked the give-and go, and DeBrincat finished. He now has nine goals in just 10 career games against Washington.
"He could have probably shot it," says DeBrincat of Pinto on the tying goal. "But he threw it back to me and it was a very smart play. I was just there and put it into the net."
The Caps have played extremely well for much longer than the five-game winning streak, but this wasn't their night from the start. Ottawa rolled out to a 10-0 lead in shots on net, and the Sens finished the night with 45 shots on Caps goalie Darcy Kuemper, who made a number of excellent stops to paper over mistakes made in front of him.
Washington's previous high in shots against also came against Ottawa in an Oct. 20 road game, a 5-2 loss to the Senators. Ottawa poured 44 shots on Kuemper that night.
"They were the better team tonight, from the start to the end," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette of the Sens. "So it's a lesson to be learned from us that we can't come out that way."
Coming off a 32-save shutout over the Rangers in New York in his previous start on Tuesday, Kuemper faced half that many shots in the first frame of Thursday's game, stopping them all. The Caps weren't able to muster much in the way of an attack in the first, but Kuemper kept the scoreboard quiet at his end of the ice.
The second period was decidedly busier on the scoreboard.
With Mr. Hockey in the rear view, Alex Ovechkin started his pursuit of the Great One early in the second period on Thursday night. After a quick regroup in neutral ice, Erik Gustafsson whirled and put a perfect stretch pass on Ovechkin's stick, exploiting an Ottawa line change and sending The Great Eight on a short ice breakaway. Ovechkin did the rest, threading a shot through the five-hole of Sens goalie Cam Talbot to stake the Caps to a 1-0 lead at 1:15.
Washington quickly added to its lead, making it a 2-0 game just over two minutes later when Conor Sheary fed Dylan Strome for a one-timer from the right dot. The lefty-shooting Strome blistered it to the short side at 3:37.
Ottawa answered back just under five minutes later. Kuemper set aside a Shane Pinto shot from distance, and the rebound was cleared, but not out. From the point, Jake Sanderson sent a seeing eye shot right back toward the net, and it found its way through traffic and behind Kuemper at 8:30, ending the netminder's personal shutout streak at 107 minutes and 30 seconds.
Washington got that goal back on a swipe and snipe from Kuznetsov, who stole the puck in neutral ice and carved into Ottawa territory with Ovechkin locked and loaded on the left side. But the crafty center instead cut to the middle and called his own number, beating Talbot to restore the Caps' two-goal cushion at 3-1 with 4:04 left.
From there, it was all Ottawa, starting with a dagger of a goal against in the waning seconds of the second period.
Giroux made a diving play to break up a Trevor van Riemsdyk breakout attempt from the Washington goal line, then the veteran ex-Flyer got to his feet and fed Tim Stützle, putting him in a 1-on-1 situation with Kuemper. The sophomore put a move on and tucked a backhander under the bar to make it a one-goal game going into the third.
A week ago in Ottawa, the Sens rallied from a one-goal deficit to force overtime, but the Caps prevailed on Marcus Johansson's overtime game-winner. Tonight, the Sens again forced overtime on DeBrincat's first goal, but they turned the tables on the Caps in the extra session.
"They're good in their own zone, so we've got to get pucks on net and grind them to get it back and go from there," says DeBrincat of the Caps. "I thought we did a good job of that. We can always get better, but we end up winning and that's all that matters."
Washington entered the game with an 18-3-1 mark in its last 22 games against the Sens, and it was 9-1-0 in its last 10 home games against Ottawa.
"First period was great," says Sens coach D.J. Smith. "We knew how good they were in the second period and we made some big mistakes and they capitalized on all of them. Big penalty there at the end of two, and Timmy scores and it gave us some life. I just thought in the third period we stayed with it, and we used everybody."