Capitals gain new life with double OT win
WASHINGTON 3, COLUMBUS 2 (2OT)
Lars Eller scored in the second overtime period and the Washington Capitals beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 3-2 in Game 3 on Tuesday night to tighten up the their firstround playoff series.
The Capitals won at Columbus’s Nationwide Arena after Columbus won the first two games — both in overtime — in Washington.
Eller tapped a rebound past Sergei Bobrovsky nine minutes into the second extra period for his first goal in the series.
Tom Wilson and John Carlson also scored, and Braden Holtby stopped 33 shots for the Capitals, who were in danger of falling into a nearly insurmountable hole had they let the game slip away.
Game 4 is Thursday in Columbus, with Game 5 set for Washington Saturday.
Pierre-Luc Dubois and Artemi Panarin scored for Columbus, while Bobrovsky finished with 42 saves after recording 54 in Game 2 on Sunday.
Panarin knotted the score 4:12 into the third after he and Cam Atkinson went back and forth with pinpoint passes before he swiped it past Holtby from the left circle.
That’s the way it stayed until the second overtime.
After a scoreless first period, Wilson got credit for the first Washington goal when he deflected Matt Niskanen’s rising shot 5:52 into the second. The Blue Jackets got a break two minutes later when a goal by the Capitals’ Brett Connolly was waved off after a video replay showed he was offside bringing the puck down the ice.
Dubois tied it with 8:42 left in the second when he rifled a shot past Holtby’s glove from the right circle.
Later in the period, with Columbus’s Brandon Dubinsky and Ryan Murray both in the penalty box for slashing, Carlson connected with 5:17 left on a one-timer 28 seconds into the 5-on-3.
The Capitals have outshot the Blue Jackets 13392 through the first three games.
Notes: Washington F Jakub Vrana played in place of Andre Burakovsky, who is out at least through Thursday’s game with an upperbody injury suffered when he was checked into the boards by Blue Jackets F Boone Jenner on Sunday ... Blue Jackets F Alexander Wennberg missed a second game after being injured in Game 1. Sonny Milano again played in his place ... The announced crowd of 19,337 was the largest ever for a Blue Jackets game.