Cole Hutson scored his first career overtime goal 1:14 into the extra period Tuesday, and the Washington Capitals beat the Ottawa Senators 3-2 to keep their momentum rolling. He also had an assist in a game that ended with the Capitals celebrating a result they barely held together.
The win moved the Washington Capitals to 10-6-0 and gave them a second straight victory. Matt Roy opened the scoring 35 seconds into the first period, Ridly Greig tied it at 1-1 in the second, and Pierre-Luc Dubois pushed the Capitals back in front at 2-2 with 12:31 left in the third before Hutson finished it.
Hutson’s goal mattered even more because Alex Ovechkin factored on the play and tied Nicklas Backstrom with 762 assists for the most assists in Capitals history. It was the kind of finish that can turn a routine midseason win into a snapshot for the record book, with a rookie defenseman at the center of it.
But the performance itself was messy. Dubois said afterward that the Capitals played one of their worst games of the year and still found a way to win, while Logan Thompson made 24 saves to help hold the line. For Ottawa, Samuel Ersson stopped 14 shots, Thomas Chabot had two assists and the Senators dropped to 11-6-2 after entering the night on a two-game winning streak.
That is the part the Capitals will carry forward: a win that counts the same in the standings even when it does not look clean. Dubois said the lesson is that key moments, goaltending, special teams and power plays can decide a night like this, and Tuesday showed how thin the margin can be when a game goes to overtime. The next question is not whether Hutson can score again, but whether the Capitals can build on a result that was better on the scoreboard than it was on the ice.
