J.T. Miller scored the overtime winning goal with 4.8 seconds on the clock to give the visiting Vancouver Canucks a thrilling 3-2 comeback victory over the Washington Capitals on Sunday.
Conor Garland and Nils Hoglander also scored for the Canucks, who sit atop the league standings. Goaltender Thatcher Demko made 32 saves, including a pair of breakaway stops in overtime.
The Canucks avoided their first three-game losing skid of the season.
Nic Dowd and Alex Ovechkin replied for the Capitals, who have one win in eight outings (1-5-2). Goalie Darcy Kuemper stopped 28 shots in a goalie battle decided by a costly defensive miscue.
Washington’s Connor McMichael, who had a couple of golden chances in overtime — including a breakaway, sent an errant pass in his own zone, that Miller intercepted in the right circle before ripping home a quick shot only a few ticks before the buzzer.
Twice the Capitals staked a lead and twice the Canucks replied.
Dowd opened the scoring 68 seconds into the clash when he drove to the net and redirected Nicolas Aube-Kubel’s pass for his first goal in 11 games and eighth of the season.
Garland responded at 11:09 of the first period when he drove down the right wing and whipped a shot into the far side for his ninth of the campaign.
Ovechkin netted his 13th of the season at 7:37 of the second period when a pass attempt ricocheted into the net off a defender’s skate. The Washington captain tallied in his fifth consecutive game and notched the 835th of his career in his chase to catch Wayne Gretzky’s NHL record of 894.
However, Hoglander tied the game at 2-2 71 seconds later by racing around a defender and, from in close, lifting a back-handed shot for his 16th goal of the season.
The Canucks were without defenseman Nikita Zadorov, who served the first half of a two-game suspension for a hit to the head in Saturday’s loss to the Detroit Red Wings
–Field Level Media
