Patrick McDermott/NHLI via Getty Images

The Washington Capitals lost to the New York Islanders 4-3  on Tuesday night at Verizon Center. The loss dropped the Capitals record to 55-17-7 (117) points. The Capitals next host the Pittsburgh Penguins Thursday night at Verizon Center. Puck-drop is 7:00 PM EST. 

Nicklas Backstrom missed a third consecutive game due to an upper body injury he sustained against the Flyers on March 30th. Stanislav Galiev, Taylor Chorney and Mike Weber were the healthy scratches. The starting lines for the Capitals:

Offensive Lines:
Ovechkin-Johansson-Oshie
Burakovsky-Kuznetsov-Williams
Chimera-Beagle-Wilson
Winnik-Richards-Latta

Defensive Pairs:
Alzner-Niskanen
Schmidt-Carlson
Orpik-Orlov

As expected, Braden Holtby got the start in net for the Caps. Christopher Gibson got the start for the Islanders. This was Gibson’s first NHL start. The goalie match-up for the game, provided by @washcaps:

QUICK TAKES

The Capitals would strike first in this one, just 4:29 into the game when Ovechkin blistered a wrister from the right dot. This was only the 5th time in the last 27 games in which the Capitals scored the first goal of the game. The Caps would play a listless middle period, giving up a goal to the Islanders, with the game tied 1-1 after two periods of play. The end of the second period featured a terrible power play effort by the Caps. The Caps would stretch the lead to 3-1 early in the 3rd period, but would squander the lead and the game. Alex Ovechkin would score two goals in this game. Team stats for the game can be found here: Player stats for the game can be found here:  Face-off stats for the game can be found here: Photos for the game can be found here:

An even 5-on-5 start for the first four minutes of play, when Evgeny Keznetsov would knock one off the post. Alex Ovechkin would start the scoring for the Caps at 4:29 of the opening period on a wrister from the right dot, his 46th of the season.

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The Capitals continued to buzz in the offensive zone following the Ovechkin goal, with several quality scoring chances, yet the Islanders led in shots on goal 7-5 through the first ten minutes of play. Michael Latta and Scott Mayfield would drop the gloves at 11:18.

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Tom Wilson would be called for cross-checking at 19:00 giving the Islanders the game’s first power play. The Caps would successfully kill the first minute of the Islanders man-advantage, bringing the first period to a close with the Caps leading 1-0. The Islanders led 10-8 in shots on goal.

The Islanders started the second period with 1:00 remaining on the power play, and would immediately ring one off the post, but otherwise the Caps would successfully kill the remaining time, allowing just two shots on goal during the power play. 5-on-5 play was fairly even for the early goings of period two. The Islanders would return to the power play when Matt Niskanen was called for cross-checking at 7:14 of the middle frame. The Caps would do a great job of shutting down the Islanders man-advantage, allowing very little offensive zone time and no shots on goal for the islanders. The Islanders would tie game at 13:43 on a shot from the point by John Tavares.

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The Capitals would go to their first power play when the Islanders Josh Bailey was called for holding at the 16:07 mark of the second period. The Caps power play was very disjointed with very little in the way of offensive zone time and scoring chances. The second period ended with the game tied 1-1. The Capitals led in shots on goal 19-18 after two periods of play.

T.J. Oshie would regain the lead for the Caps just 1:15 in the final frame on a wrister from the right-side.

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Alex Ovechkin would stretch the Caps lead to 3-1 on a beautiful tic-tac goal passing play at 6:56.

But the Islanders would answer quickly with a goal by Kyle Okposo at 8:40, closing the gap to 3-2.

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The Islanders would strike again, tying the game at 3-3 on a deflected shot by Anders Lee at 10:25 of the final frame.

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Regulation would end in a 3-3 tie.

OVERTIME
The Islanders would win it in overtime on a goal by Thomas Hickey.