Johansson’s two goals lift Capitals
Marcus Johansson scored the tying goal late in the third period and got the winner midway through overtime to lift the Washington Capitals to a 3-2 victory Monday night against the Buffalo Sabres at Verizon Center in Washington.
The goals were Johansson’s third and fourth in his past five games. He has 11 for the season.
Jay Beagle added the Capitals’ first even-strength goal in three games, as Washington snapped a three-game losing skid. Braden Holtby made 31 saves in the victory, the Capitals’ second against the Sabres in an 11-day stretch.
Kyle Okposo scored his team-leading eighth goal of the season to give the Sabres the lead in the second period. Zemgus Girgensons also scored early for Buffalo, and Robin Lehner made 30 stops for the visitors.
Johansson’s winner came 2:38 into the extra period as he took a cross-ice pass from Dmitry Orlov and fired a onetime that beat Lehner over his left pad.
Johansson tied it, 2-2, with 6:18 left in the third period, and just 5 seconds into a Washington power play, redirecting John Carlson’s shot into traffic after a faceoff.
Other games
Bruins 4, Panthers 3: David Pastrnak scored his second goal of the game 2:23 into overtime and host Boston continued its recent success against visiting Florida. Pastrnak got his teamleading 15th goal by cutting in from the left wing, shifting around goaltender Roberto Luongo and tucking in the winning goal. David Backes and Tim Schaller also scored for the Bruins, who are 15-2-1
in their past 18 games against the Panthers. Tuukka Rask stopped 27 shots to raise his record to 14-4-1 this season and 17-3-1 in his career against Florida. Jaromir Jagr had a goal for the Panthers, the 754th of his career, and Luongo finished with 32 saves.
Blue Jackets 4, Coyotes
1: Sam Gagner had two goals and two assists to help host Columbus beat Arizona for second time in three days. Nick Foligno and Zach Werensky also scored for the Blue Jackets, who won for their fourth in a row and nine of their past 12. Columbus picked up its 500th win in franchise history in sweeping the two-game season series with the Coyotes. Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 17 shots for Columbus. Arizona backup goaltender Louis Domingue had 30 saves, two days after the Blue Jackets hammered starter Mike Smith with a franchise-record 60 shots in a 3-2 shootout victory in Phoenix.