Dowd's late goal helps Capitals cool off Oilers

Nic Dowd scored the go-ahead goal at 7:13 of the third period, and the Washington Capitals held on for a 3-2 win against the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place in Edmonton on Monday.

Dowd received a drop pass from Aliaksei Protas, who was on a breakaway off a feed from Dowd, and beat Stuart Skinner from the slot to give Washington a 3-2 lead.
"He just made a great play. I was following it up and it just came back to me," Dowd said of Protas passing up the breakaway attempt. "He was on his backhand and he maybe thought he got caught. It was an unbelievable play by him."

Lars Eller and T.J. Oshie also scored for the Capitals (11-12-4), who are 2-2-1 on their season-long six-game road trip. Charlie Lindgren made 28 saves.
"I thought every guy in there played really hard," Washington coach Peter Laviolette said. "Came out the right way and did the right things in the first period. We had gotten away from that for a couple of games. I thought we did a good job tonight of trying to push it and trying to control the game. Tonight was really complete."
Connor McDavid scored in his fifth straight game, and Skinner made 47 saves for the Oilers (14-12-0), who won four of their previous five. Leon Draisaitl's five-game goal streak ended.
"We weren't as quick and physical as we wanted to be in the defensive zone," Edmonton coach Jay Woodcroft said. "Our goalie stood tall. We're 2-2 going into the third period. We made a critical error, and it ended up in the back of our net."
Skinner made 22 saves during a scoreless first period.
"I think if you get a few [early] chances on you and make all the saves, it's a little bit of a confidence booster," Skinner said. "They got on the power play and I got a few shots on the power play, so after that I was ready to go."

Brett Kulak gave the Oilers a 1-0 lead at 1:44 of the second period when he scored on a slap shot from the center point through a screen in front.
Eller tied it 1-1 at 7:25. Capitals forward Sonny Milano tipped Draisaitl's clearing attempt to Eller, who deked around Skinner and slid the puck in.
"We'll go stretches where we barely spend any time in our zone and playing well, and we'll go stretches where we're hemmed in and are giving up Grade A's," Kulak said.
McDavid gave the Oilers a 2-1 lead with a short-handed goal at 15:25 when he intercepted John Carlson's saucer pass at the Edmonton blue line and scored on a breakaway.
Oshie tied it 2-2 on the same power play, scoring in front at 16:55 off a pass from Dylan Strome from below the end line.
"When they got that short-handed goal and the coaches kept the same unit out there, we were ready and we were determined and once we got that second one, we were confident in this room that we were going to go out and get the third," Oshie said. "It's a big stepping stone for us."

NOTES: McDavid has 13 points (six goals, seven assists) in a six-game point streak. He leads the NHL in points (48) and assists (26) and is second in goals (22). … Edmonton forward Kailer Yamamoto played 18:31 and was plus-1 in his return after missing 11 games due to an undisclosed injury. … Draisaitl won 8 of 10 face-offs. … Oilers forward Zach Hyman (undisclosed) did not play. … The Capitals are 11-1-1 when scoring three or more goals this season. … Oshie finished with a career-high eight shots on goal. … Washington forward Garnet Hathaway played 11:33 and had two shots on goal in his 400th NHL game. … Strome played 16:40 in his 300th NHL game.