In Columbus, the Blue Jackets’ Johnny Gaudreau scored at 12:44 of the third period to rally them back for a 3-3 tie with the Washington Capitals on Tuesday night.
The Caps had one last push when Evgeny Kuznetsov scored with 26 seconds gone in extra tome for a 4-3 win.
“Unexpected, right?” he said. “No, it was a nice face-off win. Every time you win the face-off in overtime it’s a big possession. [Marcus Johansson] made a nice play to me. I don’t know what happened. I decided to shoot. The puck hit their guy first, that’s why it went in.”
Charlie Lindgren made 31 saves in the Washington win.
“It was sad a little to give up that goal (Columbus’ tying goal), but I believe in our team always,” Kuznetsov said. “Eventually we get the goal in overtime, which is nice. Everybody can smile now.”
The Capitals improved to 27-20-6.
Washington took a 2-0 lead in the first period on goals from Garnet Hathaway and Trevor Van Riemsdyk, his first of the game.
“We talked before the game how important these two points were going into the break, feeling good, a little positive vibes when we come back for the home stretch,” van Riemsdyk said.
The Blue Jackets got on back on a strike from Andrew Peeke , for a 2-1 deficit, his goal came 12 seconds after the
Columbus dropped to 15-32-4, they have lost three straight.
“It was a good effort. Fought our way back to tie it up there, just couldn’t find a way to win it in overtime,” Gaudreau said. “We pushed pretty hard. We went down early and fought back. [Korpisalo] played great back there again tonight. We had some good looks in the third, kind of took it to them. Tough loss.”
Van Riemsdyk hit his double in the second period for a 3-1 lead to the Caps.
“He played a really strong game for us tonight,” Washington coach Peter Laviolette said of van Riemsdyk. “You don’t expect on a nightly basis to see him popping in two goals, but when he does, it’s certainly a bonus for our team.”
Eric Robinson scored for Columbus at 11:03 of the second to get hem within one at 3-2.
“The momentum can get away from you so whenever you’re able to respond quickly, it’s big,” Robinson said. “It gets a crowd back, then it gets the team back into it and believing again.”
Joonas Korpisalo made 29 saves in the Blue Jackets loss.
“I thought it was a solid game by us and a few mistakes,” Columbus coach Brad Larsen said. “There’s some breakdowns, and it cost us there at the end.”
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