Washington
Williams’ game-winner in the third period was his 19th of the season. Washington’s streak of home games with five-plus goals ended at 11, but Braden Holtby made 30 saves to pad the team’s lead atop the NHL.
Evgeny Kuznetsov didn’t have a point but was arguably the Capitals’ best player against Edmonton. They have now outscored opponents 64-20 during their home winning streak.
Leon Draisaitl scored his team-leading 23rd goal of the season for Edmonton, which got 24 saves from goaltender Cam Talbot.
The Capitals had their most patchwork lineup of the season with injured regulars Matt Niskanen, Brooks Orpik and T.J. Oshie out along with Andre Burakovsky, who’s expected to be back in mid-to-late March. Washington is the league’s healthiest team this season with only 27 man games lost to injury, but four players out at one time meant the NHL debut of rookie forward Riley Barber and season debut of defenseman Aaron Ness.
Oshie’s absence, his 10th missed game this season because of an upper-body injury, pushed Brett Connolly on to the first line with Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom. But it was the fourth line that jumpstarted the offense with Wilson’s fifth goal of the season through traffic 12:22 into the first period.
A misplay by the Capitals’ second line led to Draisaitl’s goal 35 seconds into the second when the puck pinballed to the big German wide open in front. Connor McDavid added to his league-leading point total of 69 with the secondary assist.
Williams, a pending unrestricted free agent, beat Talbot clean on a one-timer for the game winner 5:48 into the third.
The Capitals dominated much of the final period and held on in the final minutes when Talbot was off for an extra attacker.
Flames 4, Panthers 2
Sunrise, Fla.
Troy Brouwer, Mikael Backlund, Deryk Engelland and Sam Bennett had the goals for the Flames, who scored three straight in less than five minutes midway through the first period.
Aleksander Barkov and Nick Bjugstad scored for the Panthers. Roberto Luongo stopped 24 shots in his first start in three games.
Hurricanes 3, Senators 0
Raleigh, n.c.
Jordan Staal, Elias Lindholm and Viktor Stalberg scored, and Phillip DiGiuseppe had two assists to help Carolina snap a five-game losing streak (0-4-1) and move out of last place in the Eastern Conference.
Lack (2-3-1) was making just his sixth start of the season due to concussion issues.
Craig Anderson finished with 41 saves for Ottawa, which snapped a three-game road winning streak. The Senators squandered a chance to move into first place in the Atlantic Division.
Ottawa captain Erik Karlsson moved past Kyle Turris into sole possession of second place on the franchise’s consecutive games played list with 308.
