The Washington Capitals will be out to break a season-long three-game losing streak when they host the Ottawa Senators on Monday night.
All three losses have come at home for the Capitals but forward Tom Wilson said his team isn’t ready to push the panic button.
“You can call that a skid if you want,” Wilson said following a 3-1 loss to red-hot Tampa Bay, which has won eight straight, on Saturday afternoon. “It’s three games. We don’t like it, but we’ve had a consistent year.”
Washington still holds a 12-point lead heading into Sunday’s action over both Carolina and New Jersey in the Metropolitan Division and is seven points ahead of Atlantic Division-leading Florida for the top spot in the Eastern Conference. The Capitals have also scored a league-best 215 goals.
“There’s going to be ups and downs,” Wilson said. “We’re not panicking right now. We love the group in here. Just got to find a way to get back on track. We’re doing good things, just sometimes you lose a few in row, and we’ve got to correct it as soon as possible.”
One player who continues to do good things for the Caps is forward Alex Ovechkin.
The Russian scored his 31st goal in just 44 games at the 16:01 mark of the third period on a spinning wrist shot in the slot to cut Tampa Bay’s lead to 2-1 before the Lightning sealed the win with an empty-netter with 59 seconds to go. Ovechkin, who has scored five goals in his last four games, needs to score 11 goals to break Wayne Gretzky’s NHL career mark of 894.
“I don’t think we played bad this game,” Ovechkin said. “We just have to bounce back right away. Next game we just have to respond.”
Ottawa comes in after snapping a five-game losing streak of its own with a 5-3 home victory over San Jose on Saturday. The Senators, fifth in the Atlantic Division with 64 points, trail the Detroit Red Wings by just two points for the final wild-card spot in the East.
Tim Stutzle had a goal and an assist against the Sharks to extend his point streak to 11 games as Ottawa scored four times after trailing 2-1 entering the final period.
“It’s huge,” said Stutzle, who matched the franchise record for longest assist streak (10 games). “We had a lot of faith in us (heading into the final period). We had chances, I think, on the power play especially, and we just couldn’t capitalize. Ully (goaltender Linus Ullmark) was great to keep us in the game.”
Ullmark made 34 saves to pick up his first win since Dec. 19, having missed six weeks due to injury before returning in February. Brady Tkachuk and Shane Pinto both scored in their returns from injury and David Perron and Michael Amadio also had goals for the Senators.
“Being down going into the third, and just still finding a way to get the job done, just a big two points,” said Tkachuk, who had missed two games with a lower-body injury suffered in the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament. “I mean, playoff hockey starts now, so you’ve got to win these games to get into the dance.”
This is the third of three regular-season meetings but the first in Washington. The Capitals, behind 24 saves by Logan Thompson and an overtime goal by Ovechkin, won the first one 1-0 on Jan. 16. The Senators won the second contest 5-4 in overtime on Jan. 30 on a breakaway goal by Thomas Chabot.
–Field Level Media
