WASHINGTON, D.C. — Washington beat the Florida Panthers 4-3 on Saturday night at Capital One Arena, wiping out an early deficit with three goals in a row.
Defenseman Jack St. Ivany put the Capitals on the board 2 minutes and 21 seconds after the opening faceoff, scoring the first goal of his NHL career when his attempt from along the wall got behind Akira Schmid. Brady Tkachuk evened the score almost immediately, then gave Florida a 2-1 lead at 10:00 of the first while Washington was killing a penalty after Tom Wilson hit Sandis Vilmanis. Wilson received a five-minute major for boarding and was ejected, and Vilmanis departed at 8:55 and stayed out the rest of the night.
Alex Tuch pulled Washington even at 2-2 only 4:39 into the second period, his 11th of the year. Aliaksei Protas then put the Capitals ahead 3-2 at 14:55, finishing a feed from Pierre-Luc Dubois. Dubois scored again at 4:42 of the third period to stretch the lead to 4-2, and Sam Bennett answered with 46.6 seconds remaining to make it a one-goal game.
Capitals goaltender Logan Thompson turned aside 27 shots as Washington moved to 9-6-0, bouncing back from a pair of home losses. Schmid finished with 27 saves as well. The Panthers dropped to 9-6-2 and visit the Boston Bruins on Sunday, the next stop on a three-game trip.
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