Caps Overtake Cats in Third for Third Straight Win

Alex Ovechkin's tip-in tally in the third period helped propel the Caps to a 4-2 win over the Florida Panthers on Thursday night in Sunrise, Fla. The goal, Ovechkin's second in as many games, restored Washington's lead after a mediocre second period permitted the Panthers to erase what had been an early 2-0 Capitals lead.

Braden Holtby stopped 26 of 28 shots to earn his second win of the season. The Caps dodged a bullet in the second period when what appeared to be a Colton Sceviour power-play goal was waved off because of a quick whistle from one of the referees.

"I think we did just enough to win tonight," says Caps right wing Justin Williams, one of three Caps to net his first goal of the season in Thursday's game. "Sometimes you think you do just enough to lose. Obviously we were fortunate to win, but good teams win when they don't have their best games. We did today."

Washington had a good first period, scoring multiple goals in a frame for the first time this season to take an early 2-0 lead after a strong Holtby save on Jaromir Jagr prevented the Panthers from drawing first blood.

For the fourth time in as many games this season, the Caps scored first.

Nate Schmidt zipped down the left side of the ice, gaining the Panthers' zone with some speed. Schmidt squeezed past Cats' defenseman Aaron Ekblad along the half wall, then threw a pass from the goal line to Williams, who was at the front of the net. Williams took a whack from point blank range, but Roberto Luongo made the stop. Williams was able to deposit his own rebound before Luongo recovered, netting the 250th goal of his NHL career at 8:25 of the first.

The Capitals doubled that early advantage less than two minutes later.

With a loose puck bouncing around in the high slot of the Florida zone, the Panthers weren't quite able to settle it, corral it and clear it. Matt Niskanen got to it first, and he floated a soft wrist shot toward the net. Evgeny Kuznetsov drove by the cage and deflected it past Luongo for a 2-0 Washington advantage at 10:21 of the first frame.

Florida was able to get one back later in the period. Playing in just his seventh NHL game, Panthers blueliner Mike Matheson scored his second goal in as many games. His shot from the left half wall slipped through Holtby, perhaps catching the Caps goaltender somewhat off-guard.

Early in the second, the Caps fell into a spate of penalty trouble. With Lars Eller off for tripping in the second minute of the second, Florida's Jonathan Marchessault rang a shot off the iron. Washington successfully snuffed that Panthers power play, getting some good penalty killing work from Williams and Tom Wilson to finish it off.

T.J. Oshie went to the box for hooking at 6:50, and that's when Sceviour whacked the puck past Holtby from a prone position during a goalmouth scramble. But one of refs blew his whistle and immediately waved off the goal. The play is not reviewable from a coach's challenge standpoint, but the officials conferred with the NHL's Situation Room in Toronto, which confirmed that the whistle had indeed sounded prior to the puck crossing the goal line. Washington's 2-1 lead stood, but the Panthers kept coming.

With 7:26 remaining in the middle period, Nicklas Backstrom was boxed for tripping. Suddenly, a Washington team that hadn't faced more than three penalty-killing missions in the same game in the young season was being tasked with its third shorthanded situation in a span of just over 11 minutes.

For Florida, the third time proved to be the charm.

Aleksander Barkov put the puck on a tee for Jagr, who blazed a shot past Holtby from the slot, the 750th career NHL goal for the venerable winger and former Capital, whose pro hockey odyssey began in 1990.

The Capitals survived the remainder of the second and entered the third all even for the first time in four games this season.

Early in the third, the Caps finally got their first - and what would turn out to be their only - power play of the game. Washington was able to sustain some offensive zone pressure with that man advantage, and it was able to carry it over after the Panthers completed the kill.

Just over a minute after the power play ended, Ovechkin redirected a Niskanen left-point shot behind Luongo to give the Caps a lead they would not relinquish.

The Caps killed off another penalty in the immediate aftermath of the Ovechkin goal, holding the Panthers without a shot on net during those two minutes. Halfway through that kill, there was a scary moment when Reilly Smith's shot caught Caps winger Daniel Winnik in the head. Winnik went off for repairs - he lost a small piece of his ear according to Caps coach Barry Trotz - but he later returned to the game.

Before the Panthers could pull Luongo for an extra attacker, the Caps restored their two-goal lead in the penultimate minute of the game.

Panthers defenseman Jason Demers tried to make a play from high in his own zone, but Marcus Johansson got a stick on it, knocking it to the slot. From there, Johansson got to the puck first and quickly whipped a shot past Luongo to make it a 4-2 game with 80 seconds left.

Florida managed only six shots on net in the third as the Caps were able to salt away their third straight victory.

After the two teams split the first two periods - the Caps claiming the first and Florida outplaying them in the second - Washington tipped the scales back with another solid third period performance.

"We started playing the way we needed to," says Trotz of Washington's final frame. "We said in the first, 'Let's play the right way, let's get on their defense.' That's the way you have to do it in this league; you have to put some pressure on their back end. I thought we did that.

"Second period, I didn't think we had the same mindset. We wanted to dangle through the neutral zone. They're not going to let you do that; they've got a lot of people above you and there are layers of resistance. Sometimes you've got to just go straight, put it behind them, get in on the forecheck and get it back. We didn't do that very well in the second, and we played a lot in our own end. They drew three penalties and that's not winning hockey.

"We've got a veteran group. We just talked about it in the third; they responded really well and I thought in the third period [the Panthers] really didn't have much. They had one or two chances, but not much. We had the majority."