WASHINGTON (AP) Jason Spezza and Tyler Pitlick scored 10 seconds apart, Jason Dickinson had the overtime winner and the Dallas Stars beat the Washington Capitals 4-3 on Saturday night for their first three-game winning streak of the season.
Dickinson scored 3:17 into overtime to salvage two points for Dallas, which also got a goal from captain Jamie Benn and is finally finding its game under first-year coach Jim Montgomery. Ben Bishop stopped 29 shots to beat the Capitals for just the third time in 12 games.
Bishop allowed sharp-angle, short-side goals to Nicklas Backstrom and Evgeny Kuznetsov during an inconsistent performance. Brett Connolly also scored for Washington, batting the puck out of the air before Bishop could get back to glove it away.
Capitals goalie Braden Holtby made 32 saves and stopped Tyler Seguin on a penalty shot in overtime but lost to the Stars for the fifth time in eight games. Holtby turned the puck over to Pitlick on one goal and was victimized by bad turnovers on Dallas’ other two goals in regulation.
One game after allowing the fastest two goals in NHL history, the Capitals gave up two in quick succession again – this time with the goaltender in the net for both. A turnover at the offensive blue line allowed Spezza to score on a breakaway 10:51 into the first period, and Holtby turned the puck over to Pitlick behind the net to make it 2-0 Stars just 10 seconds later.
Backstrom cut Dallas’ lead in half 38 seconds into the second period when he scored from a tight angle short side and high on the 6-foot-7 Bishop. But another Washington mistake, this time a turnover by Jakub Vrana, allowed the Stars to go up 3-1 on Benn’s sixth goal of the season midway through the second.
In a game that was far from a showcase of defensive structure or sound goaltending, Connolly cut it to 3-2 less than two minutes later by batting his own rebound out of the air and into a wide-open net. Kuznetsov tied the score at 3 on the power play in the third period with another sharp-angle shot up high that Bishop should have stopped.
NOTES: Capitals D Brooks Orpik missed his second consecutive game with a lower-body injury. He did not practice all week. … Stars D Marc Methot and F Alexander Radulov were out with lower-body injuries. Montgomery said Radulov returned to Dallas for treatment and will miss the final two games of the road trip. … Montgomery said injured D Connor Carrick (foot) should be able to get back into skates soon.
UP NEXT
Stars: At Boston on Monday in the fifth stop on their six-game Eastern Conference road trip.
Capitals: Continue a five-game home stand against Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers on Monday.
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Follow AP Hockey Writer Stephen Whyno on Twitter at https://twitter.com/SWhyno
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More AP NHL: https://apnews.com/tag/NHL and https://twitter.com/AP-Sports
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