Dmitry Orlov scored with 32.3 seconds left in overtime Monday night for the visiting Washington Capitals, who overcame a three-goal deficit to beat the New York Islanders 4-3 in Elmont, N.Y.
Orlov deked before beating Ilya Sorokin from point-blank range.
Garnet Hathaway, Tom Wilson and T.J. Oshie scored for the Capitals, who snapped a two-game losing streak and extended their lead over the Islanders in the race for the first Eastern Conference wild-card spot to four points. Goalie Darcy Kuemper made 27 saves.
Sebastian Aho, Matt Martin and Hudson Fasching scored for the Islanders, who have lost five of six (1-3-2) to fall into a tie for the final wild-card spot with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Sorokin recorded 31 saves.
Aho opened the scoring just 4:24 after the opening faceoff, when he exchanged the puck with Josh Bailey before firing a shot from inside the blue line that sailed over Kuemper’s shoulder as he got into his crouch.
A faceoff win by the Islanders deep in the Capitals’ zone led to Martin’s goal just under nine minutes later. Casey Cizikas outbattled Evgeny Kuznetsov and Martin got to the puck and passed to Alexander Romanov before getting into a gaggle of players in the shooting lane and redirecting Romanov’s shot with 6:41 left.
The Islanders extended the lead to 3-0 following an end-to-end rush early in the second, when Jean-Gabriel Pageau backhanded a pass at the goal line to Fasching before the right winger beat Kuemper with an angled shot into the far end of the net at the 3:51 mark.
The Capitals began their comeback just beyond the midway point of the second. After Marcus Johansson won a faceoff against Brock Nelson, Alex Ovechkin fired a shot that bounced off Sorokin. Hathaway then tapped the rebound under Sorokin’s legs just before he was dragged down by Scott Mayfield with 9:59 left.
The teams had just begun a 4-on-4 sequence when Wilson scored his first regular-season goal since last Apr. 14. Nicklas Backstrom fed Wilson with a backhanded pass from behind the net before the pugnacious right winger beat Sorokin from point-blank range with 6:52 remaining.
Oshie tied the score 5:54 into the third, when he redirected a shot by Erik Gustafsson.
The Islanders almost took the lead with a little more than seven minutes left, when Kuemper stopped Fasching twice at the doorstep. Kuemper then turned back a pair of attempts by Anders Lee to poke the puck into the net with just under two minutes remaining.
–Field Level Media