Jake Sanderson's goal early in OT lifts Senators over Capitals

Jake Sanderson scored 41 seconds into overtime to lift the Ottawa Senators to a 3-2 win over the host Washington Capitals on Sunday evening.

Sanderson's 10th goal of the season capped a comeback for Ottawa (34-39-4, 72 points), which trailed midway through the third period before Ridly Greig scored to force overtime. Mark Kastelic also scored for the Senators.

Max Pacioretty and Aliaksei Protas scored one goal apiece for Washington (36-30-11, 83 points). The Capitals collected one point for reaching overtime but missed out on a chance to gain two points as they are bunched up among teams with a point of the second wild-card playoff berth in the Eastern Conference.

Senators goaltender Joonas Korpisalo stopped 20 of 22 shots to improve to 20-24-4.

Capitals goaltender Charlie Lindgren turned aside 18 of 21 shots but dropped to 21-15-7.

Washington opened the scoring 4:43 into the first period.

After the Senators lost possession of the puck deep in their end, Hendrix Lapierre swept a pass to Pacioretty near the right side of the crease. Pacioretty blasted a one-timer into the net for his fourth goal of the season and the 330th of his career.

Ottawa evened the score at 1-1 with 14:20 remaining in the second period. Jakob Chychrun carried the puck into the offensive zone and fed a pass to Kastelic, who capitalized with his fifth goal of the season.

The Capitals regained a 2-1 lead with 2:50 to go in the second period. Protas found a rebound near the right side of the crease and lifted a shot into the net for his sixth goal.

Ottawa battled back once again to tie the score at 2-2 with 7:11 left in the third period. Greig fired a wrist shot through traffic and into the net for his 13th goal.

The Senators finished 0-for-2 on the power play. Washington was 0-for-3.

Ottawa won the regular-season series 2-1 against Washington.