Wings avoid another late-game collapse
Tomas Tatar scored his second goal of the game 2:47 into overtime Sunday and the Detroit Red Wings avoided a second straight embarrassing loss by edging the Washington Capitals 5-4.
Tatar beat Braden Holtby for his 14th goal of the season. He also scored with 11 seconds to play in the second period to give Detroit a 4-1 lead.
Justin Abdelkader, Luke Glendening and Anthony Mantha also scored for the Red Wings, who had dropped three in a row. They blew a 5-2 third-period lead against the New York Islanders Friday and lost 7-6 in overtime.
Jimmy Howard made 23 saves in his first win since Jan. 5. The Red Wings held the Capitals to two shots in the second.
Alex Ovechkin scored his NHLbest 33rd goal for Washington, which was coming off a homeand-home sweep of Columbus. Brett Connolly, Dmitry Orlov and Nicklas Backstrom scored in the third and Holtby stopped 24 shots.
Ovechkin’s 10th power-play goal made it 1-0 at 4:20 in the first period. Evgeny Kuznetsov picked up an assist on the play, extending his point streak to seven straight games.
The Red Wings responded with four straight goals, including three during a dominant performance in the second. Abdelkader stole the puck at the red line and tied it at 1-1 with his ninth of the season at 13:37 of the first. Glendening and Mantha scored nine seconds apart in the second and Tatar’s first goal gave the Red Wings a 4-1 lead.
The Capitals pulled within one on goals by Connolly and Orlov. They had a two-man advantage when they pulled Holtby and Dan DeKeyser was called for holding with 1:15 left and Backstrom tied it with his 13th goal with 17 seconds to play.
The Wings host Anaheim Tuesday.