In Washington, DC, Nashville’s Ryan O’Reilly was credited with the deciding goals on penalties on Saturday night in a 3-2 Predators win over the Capitals. 
Yaroslav Askarov made 26 saves in the win.
“It’s the best feeling,” Askarov, 21, said after making saves against fellow Russians Evgeny Kuznetsov and Alex Ovechkin in the shootout to cap his first start of the season. “It’s crazy. The game only finish now, and I need more time to just think about it.”
The Predators’ improved to 20-16-1.
“I thought the first 10 minutes were really good, then we started getting back to some of the things that make us unsuccessful,” Predators coach Andrew Brunette said. “But we self-corrected after the first and I thought the last two periods we played our game.”
Nashville’s Luke Evangelista scored at 2:24 of the first period to give them a 1-0 lead.
“No, not for a while,” Evangelista said when asked the last time he scored a goal on his knees. “Maybe back in my minor midget days, but not in a while.”
Roman Josi hit off the power play at 6:55 to extend the advantage to 2-0.
The Caps dropped to 17-11-6 off their fourth straight loss.
The Caps trimmed the deficit to 2-1 when Beck Malenstyn scored at at 10:25.
“[We] had a focus today of sending more pucks to the net with body presence, and I was fortunate to be on the right side of that one,” Malenstyn said. “I think we just have to be a little more conscious of our starts. Puts us behind the 8-ball a little bit. Thought we did a good job of clawing back.”
Alex Ovechkin knotted the game, 2-2, at 14:59 of the middle frame.
Hunter Shepard made 33 saves in the loss, after being called up from the Hershey Bears in the American Hockey League.
“’Shep’ was excellent,” Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said. “Had a chance to win it in overtime. Had some decent looks. There were some good things and then some things we could have done better.”
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