OTTAWA — Mike Fisher scored his first goal of the season with less than 40 seconds left in overtime to give the Senators a 2-1 win over the Capitals on Tuesday night.
Fisher, who set up Dany Heatley’s second-period goal, took Daniel Alfredsson’s pass and shot past goaltender Brent Johnson into an open left side with 39.9 seconds remaining in the extra period.
“It was the kind of game where we had to be patient, stick with it, and just kind of slow them down as much as possible, some of their guns, and then Alfie made a really nice play in overtime,” Fisher said.
Heatley scored his eighth goal early in the second for Ottawa.
Tomas Fleischmann drew Washington even at 1 with his fourth goal just 2:13 after Heatley scored.
Alexander Ovechkin returned to the Capitals’ lineup missing two games to visit his ailing grandfather in Russia.
“I thought early on he had lots of good little opportunities,” Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau said. “At the end of the game, maybe his wind was — I don’t know, he didn’t have as many chances.
“I thought it was closer checking, even though their shot total was much greater than ours.”
Johnson turned aside 42 shots, including 13 in the first, when the Capitals successfully killed a Senators’ 5-on-3 advantage for 1:57 midway through the period.
“It’s definitely a tough loss,” Johnson said. “You want better results any time you can play like that.”
Alex Auld stopped 26 shots in his sixth straight start for the Senators.
“(Johnson) was great,” Auld said. “It seemed like everything we threw at him, he was getting a piece of it.”
Heatley opened the scoring 1:13 into the second. The high-scoring forward got behind Washington defenseman Jeff Schultz in the neutral zone to receive a breakaway pass from Fisher.
Heatley drove the net and deked Johnson before stuffing the puck inside the left post, past the goalie’s outstretched right pad.
