Must have tasted pretty good.

Karlsson spent the evening on the ice for the first time in about 2½ months, and he and the Ottawa Senators are heading back to the NHL postseason.

They might even wind up back in the same arena next week.

Sergei Gonchar scored a power-play goal 47 seconds into overtime on Karlsson’s second assist of his successful and sooner-than-anticipated return from a torn Achilles tendon, and Ottawa clinched a playoff berth by beating the Washington Capitals 2-1 on Thursday night.

“I would have been happy if I sat in the stands and we would have won this game, as well, I think, and that’s the main goal,” Karlsson said. “I’m going to have to work on my stuff, and as long as this team keeps winning, I’m going to be happy.”

The overtime wins by the Senators and New York Rangers eliminated the Winnipeg Jets from the playoff chase.

Ottawa had lost its previous two games.

“I’m just glad to put all the doubters behind us,” said Craig Anderson, who made 19 saves. “We lost a couple games there … and I think that was kind of the talk: Are we going to fold the tent and go home? But I think we all kind of strapped on the belt and went to work and found ways to make people believers.”

The only shot that got past him was Alex Ovechkin’s NHL-leading 32nd goal, which tied the game 8½ minutes into the third period.

But ex-Capitals defenseman Gonchar took a pass from Karlsson and put the winner past Michal Neuvirth, who made 39 saves.

The Southeast Division champion Capitals had nothing at stake. They already are locked into the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference.

The Senators, who have two games left, moved up to sixth in the East. If they remain there, Ottawa would face the Capitals, who have won 10 of 12 overall — with the only losses against the Senators.

“If we end up playing them, we’ll be ready,” Washington’s first-year coach Adam Oates said.

Ottawa won all three regular-season matchups against the Capitals.

“We just came out flat,” Washington defenseman Mike Green said. “I don’t know what it is the last couple times we’ve played against them. But it’s the way it’s gone.”

The Capitals secured their sixth consecutive playoff appearance by clinching the division title with a 5-3 victory over Winnipeg on Tuesday.

So while the Capitals didn’t need a victory on Thursday, the Senators most certainly did.

“It was a big game,” Neuvirth pointed out, “for them.”

For Karlsson, last season’s Norris Trophy winner as the NHL’s top defenseman, this was his first game since Pittsburgh’s Matt Cooke stepped on the back of his leg on Feb. 13.

Karlsson originally was expected to miss the rest of the season after surgery, but recently returned to practice. He sat out 31 games, but now is back in time to get into game shape ahead of the playoffs.

“I felt OK,” Karlsson said. “Did battle some issues out there, and didn’t feel quite as comfortable as I’m used to, but overall I think it was a solid game. I still have to work through some mistakes and clean those up.”

Karlsson played a game-high 27-plus minutes and managed to demonstrate just how valuable he is.

With the game scoreless 12:35 into the second period, from barely inside the blue line, he shook his stick to get the attention of Milan Michalek, whose pass was strongly one-timed by Karlsson toward the net. The puck was redirected by Jakob Silfverberg. Then came the set up for Gonchar.

“Obviously, our team was a different team with him on the ice, and the things that he can do that others can’t do. He’s a very special player,” Senators coach Paul MacLean said about Karlsson. “He’s done, obviously, a ton of work.”

Silfverberg briefly stayed down on the ice with about three minutes left after appearing to take a glove to the face from Capitals defenseman Steve Oleksy. No penalty was called.

But Capitals forward Mike Ribeiro was sent to the box twice in the final five minutes of regulation, and teammate Jason Chimera was given a 10-minute misconduct in the last minute. The game was chippy throughout, including a scrum involving eight players along the boards earlier in the third period. The first period had a handful of near-fights and some late hits.

Ovechkin scored his fourth goal in three games, but his first point against Ottawa this season.

He gathered the puck near the boards on the right side — Oates moved him from left wing — and swept in front of the net with defenseman Chris Phillips riding his back, before flipping a backhander past Anderson.

Nearly seated on the ice afterward, Ovechkin spun around and kissed his glove, while fans responded with loud chants of “M-V-P!”

Game notes

It was Ovechkin’s 600th NHL game. … Ottawa will play at home against Philadelphia on Saturday, and at the Bruins on Sunday in a game rescheduled because of the Boston Marathon bombings. … The Capitals finish the regular season Saturday against visiting Boston.

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Yet here they are, postseason-bound with two games to spare, quite the achievement for Alex Ovechkin and first-year coach Adam Oates. Tuesday night’s 5-3 win over the Winnipeg Jets clinched the Southeast Division for the Capitals, who were next-to-last in the Eastern Conference as recently as March 21.

“I remember 20 games ago looking at the schedule,” said Mathieu Perreault, one of five Capitals to score a goal Tuesday. “Like, ‘Man, we’re probably going to have to go 16-4 to get in’ — and basically did it. It almost looked impossible if you look back 20 games, but this team has got so much character, and they found a way to do it.”

If the Capitals win their final two, they will indeed finish with 16 wins in 20 games, but that would be gravy at this point. They’re in the playoffs for the sixth consecutive season, a run that includes five Southeast titles. As a bonus, they will leapfrog several teams with better records and enter the playoffs as the conference’s No. 3 seed for winning their division, even if it is the weakest division in the NHL.

“We had a lousy start,” Oates said. “And I don’t think many of us thought we would come this far. But we obviously put some really good hockey together, and the guys have grown and it’s obviously a good feeling right now.”

The Capitals blew a two-goal lead, survived a pair of replay reviews and exhaled deeply when defensemen John Erskine cleared two shots off the goal line. They also had to kill off a power play with a one-goal lead late in the game, but they held to win for the 10th time in 11 games.

Ovechkin scored his league-leading 31st goal — an empty-netter in the final minute — and Matt Hendricks, Jason Chimera and Nicklas Backstrom also scored. Braden Holtby made 24 saves for the Capitals.

The loss keeps the Jets in ninth place in the East, one spot away from the playoffs but with slim chances of moving up because they have only one game remaining. They trail the New York Rangers and Ottawa Senators by one point, but the Rangers have two games left and the Senators have three.

“It was basically our Game 7 in the playoffs,” said Nik Antropov, who scored Winnipeg’s third goal. “And it’s frustrating to lose that way.”

Evander Kane and Blake Wheeler also scored for the Jets, who had won six of seven but were playing the second half of a road back-to-back after beating the Buffalo Sabres on Monday.

“We played too cute,” Winnipeg coach Claude Noel said. “There was no way we were going to be able to match their skill level and to play the way that they played. We had to do some things that to me that we didn’t do.”

Hendricks and Chimera gave the Capitals a 2-0 lead after the first period, but the score would have been tied if not for Erskine, who cleared Bryan Little’s shot off the line when Holtby was caught out of position and later arrived just in time to get his stick on a bouncing puck that had dribbled down the goaltender’s back on a tip by Aaron Gagnon. The puck was some 90 percent across the line — but not all the way, and the no-goal call was upheld by video review.

“He’s our third goalie right now,” Ovechkin said with a smile.

The Jets did pull even in the second period when Kane and Wheeler scored, but it took just 37 seconds for the Capitals to regain the lead when Backstrom’s right skate neatly redirected a centering pass from Ovechkin. The replay review determined that Backstrom didn’t use a deliberate kicking motion, and the goal was upheld.

Perreault doubled the lead by putting in a rebound late in the second period, but Antropov beat Holtby stick-side with 8:10 remaining in the third to pull the Jets within one.

Perrault was whistled for high sticking with 5:16 remaining, but the Capitals killed off the penalty without allowing a shot. Ovechkin capped the celebration with the empty-netter, prompting chants of “M-V-P!” throughout the sold-out arena.

“The way we started, there were a lot of doubters,” Hendricks said. “Our fans were against us a little bit, the media was hard on us a little bit. But we came and did what we set out to do.”

Game notes

Antropov returned after missing eight games with a lower body injury. Jets F Kyle Wellwood was out with a significant injury to his right hand from blocking a shot during Monday’s win at Buffalo. … Ovechkin set an NHL record with his goal, although it’s one that probably deserves an asterisk. It was his 13th in the month of April, an accomplishment made easier because the lockout-modified schedule is extending the regular season deeper into the month than usual. The previous record of 12 was set by Mario Lemieux in 1993 and tied by Winnipeg’s Alex Zhamnov in 1995.

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General manager George McPhee met with reporters for some 20 minutes at the team’s facility and cited penalties and goaltending as the major culprits that have caused the Capitals to lose nine of their first 11 games.

McPhee had positive words for new coach Adam Oates and franchise player Alex Ovechkin, even though the former two-time league MVP has yet to score a 5-on-5 goal this season.

“We’re disappointed with the way things have started. It’s not over. Nothing that a couple of wins won’t really help,” McPhee said. “But we’re going to make good decisions. We’re not going to do anything short term. We’re not going to blow anything up. We like the people here.”

The Capitals lost 5-2 to the rival Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday and have yet to score four goals in a game this season. They have allowed an NHL-high 15 power play goals.

“We’re playing a good game and then we start taking penalties, and we take them in bunches,” McPhee said. “And no system, no coach, no team can survive that.”

McPhee called the rash of penalties “undisciplined” and “selfish” and said they resulted from a “lack of focus.” But he didn’t link those deficiencies to the leadership of Oates, a first-time NHL coach who had an abbreviated training camp because of the lockout-shortened season.

“I really like the coaches. I love what they’re doing,” McPhee said. “I like the way that we’re playing in terms of our system.”

The Capitals appeared to be set at goalie with rising stars Braden Holtby and Michal Neuvirth vying for playing time this season, but both have been disappointing so far.

“There is upside there with these goaltenders,” McPhee said. “But they can both play better and they know it. And it’s time for them to play.”

As for Ovechkin, McPhee is pleased with the high-priced forward who has switched this season from left wing to right. Ovechkin has only three goals — all on the power play — and was visibly seething after the loss to the Penguins.

“I really like the way Alex has played the last four games,” McPhee said. “Adam is convinced that he can get him playing the way that Ovi can play, and a couple of these games are the best that we’ve seen him in a long time. … He’s getting a lot more chances on the right side than the left. He’s a much more effective player. I like it a lot. You might disagree, but it looks a lot better to us.”

Owner Ted Leonsis also noted the struggles of the goaltending and the offense on his blog Friday and added: “We have many challenges as an organization, and as a team.”

“I’ve had some real good discussions with ownership over the last couple of days,” McPhee said. “They’re obviously not very happy. But they’ve been supportive. At times like this, ownership can pile on and make things worse or ownership can say, ‘How can we help? And what can we do to make it better?’ And it’s been the latter. … And I provided some options, and they provided some real clear direction, which was great.

“So that being said, if there’s something I can do to help the club out, I will. But I’m not going to do anything stupid.”

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