It is time to being gripping sticks hard in Washing, a day after the Capitals blew a late lead and lost to the Columbus Blue Jackets in overtime, 4-3.
Artemi Panarin scored at 6:02 of the extra session to bring the ghosts of seasons past 
out of the shadows.
“Big goal for our team,” Panarin said. “I’m happy because it was a hard game and a big win.”
Panarin was a late season acquisition in a trade for the Jackets.
“We traded away a really good player in [Brandon Saad] to get him,” Columbus head coach John Tortorella said. “A different type of player, a guy that makes something out of nothing. Makes a great play on the tying goal and scores just a goal that a lot of people can’t score in this league. That’s sometimes the difference between winning and losing.”
Columbus’ Seth Jones knotted the game at 3-3 with a goal at 15:34 of the third period.
Alexander Wennberg and Thomas Vanek also scored in regulation for the Jackets.
Evgeny Kuznetsov struck twice and and Devante Smith-Pelly added a single marker for the Caps.
Sergei Bobrovsky made 27 saves to get the win.
[WATCH: All Blue Jackets vs. Capitals highlights | Complete Capitals vs. Blue Jackets series coverage]
Philipp Grubauer made 23 saves in the loss.
“You’ve got a lead there, you’ve got to be smart,” Grubauer said. “It doesn’t matter what it is. Whatever you do, protect the middle of the ice. Don’t make it hard on yourself, basically. We kind of shot ourselves in the foot a little bit again.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.