Capitals pull out OT win over Coyotes
WASHINGTON -- John Carlson scored with 46 seconds left in overtime as the Washington Capitals rallied from a two-goal deficit to defeat the Arizona Coyotes 3-2 on Monday night.
Evgeny Kuznetsov fed T.J. Oshie in the slot but fanned on the shot. The puck sailed over to Carlson, who beat goalie Scott Edgewood for his first goal of the season. Earlier in the game, Carlson had an assist.
Alex Ovechkin scored his 12th goal of the season for Washington (8-6-1), and Davante Smith-Pelly added a goal.
Braden Holtby made 24 saves as the Capitals won their third consecutive game.
The Coyotes (2-12-1), looking for their first back-to-back wins of the season, took a 2-0 lead early in the first period on goals by rookie Clayton Keller (11th of the season) and Christian Fischer (fourth).
Wedgewood finished with 37 saves as Washington went 1 of 6 on the power play.
It took all of one minute for Arizona to jump in front. Keller took advantage of a Lars Eller turnover at the Coyotes' blue line, went the other way and came in on Holtby as part of a two-on-one. When the defenseman didn't commit, Keller kept the puck and fired low to make it 1-0.
Arizona doubled its lead at 6:42 when Christian Dvorak got behind the defense on the rush along the right boards. Fischer, driving to the net, deflected the centering pass under the crossbar on Holtby's stick side.
The Capitals cut the deficit in half when Smith-Pelly gathered in the rebound of Eller's shot and backhanded a shot by Wedgewood from just inside the left circle at 8:41 of the first period.
The Capitals have struggled on the power play early in the season -- especially at home -- and they looked bad on their first three chances in the second period.
Then on their fourth try, a Coyotes player lost his stick and Carlson set up Ovechkin for a blast from his office in the left circle that tied the score at 14:23.
Holtby kept things tied up when he stoned Brendan Perlini on a breakaway with 2:30 left in the second period.
NOTES: With his 216th career power-play goal, Washington LW Alex Ovechkin passed Joe Nieuwendyk for sole possession of 12th place on the NHL's career list. ... Capitals D John Carlson is averaging more than 27 minutes of ice time per game, tops in the NHL. ... The Coyotes have scored first in 12 of 16 games this season, the best rate in the league. ... Both teams play the second of back-to-backs Tuesday night, with Washington at Buffalo and Arizona visiting Pittsburgh.