SUNRISE — The Washington Capitals are in a similar position that the Florida Panthers were in at this time last season.
On Saturday, it looked like it.
The Capitals scored a pair of power-play goals late in the second and midway through the third before Carter Verhaeghe tied the score with a power play goal of his own.
In overtime, it was Gus Forsling who drilled home the winner, coming down on a 3-on-1 and one-timing a pass from Sam Bennett to give Florida its seventh win in eight games.
Washington, which had won three straight coming in and has points in six of its past seven games, are trying to chase down the Lightning for the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.
Florida got another stellar performance from Anthony Stolarz who was coming off a shutout in Buffalo last week.
The Panthers led 1-0 when Nick Cousins scored on a pretty nice deflection of a Dmitry Kulikov offering from the point.
Down 2-1 late in the third, Cousins had a fantastic scoring chance — but ended up drawing the penalty on which Verhaeghe tied the score.
1. Anthony Stolarz, Florida
2. Gus Forsling, Florida
3. Charlie Lindgren, Washington
More must-reads:
Get the latest news and rumors, customized to your favorite sports and teams. Emailed daily. Always free!