OTTAWA — Tyler Lewington and Tom Wilson each had a goal and an assist to lead the Washington Capitals to a 3-2 win over the short-handed Ottawa Senators on Saturday.
The Capitals have won four straight while the Senators have dropped four in a row.
Madison Bowey also scored for the Capitals (24-10-3) and Pheonix Copley made 31 saves.
The Senators were without top defenceman Thomas Chabot and fellow blue-liner Christian Jaros following injuries Friday in a 6-3 loss to the New York Islanders.
Jaros broke a finger while Chabot was placed on injured reserve with an upper body injury following a hit from Islanders forward Matt Murray in the second period.
Both players are expected to miss 3-4 weeks.
Along with being short-handed, the Senators had goaltender Marcus Hogberg making his first NHL appearance. Hogberg made 21 saves while Colin White and Mark Stone scored for the Senators (15-20-4), who are last in the Eastern Conference.
Stone scored at 16:30 of the third period, creating a white-knuckle finish.
The Capitals took a 3-1 lead into the second intermission.
It was quite an opening 40 minutes for the Edmonton-born Lewington, who was playing in just his second NHL game.
Lewington drew an assist on the game’s opening goal by Wilson at 7:12 of the first period for the first point of his career and then whistled a shot past Hogberg at 16:00 for his first NHL goal.
Late in the second period, he got his first fighting major in a bout with Zack Smith, giving Lewington a Gordie Howe hat trick.
Bowey gave the Capitals a 3-0 just 61 seconds into the second period when he skated in from the point and beat Hogberg with a shot from the top of the faceoff circle.
It was the first goal of Bowey’s career.
The Senators got one back as White was credited with a goal at 4:22 of the second after a Washington challenge for goaltender interference was dismissed.
Senators rookie Brady Tkachuk earned an assist on that goal but just 33 seconds later was knocked to the ice by a hit to the head from Bowey. Tkachuk immediately jumped to his feet and received an instigator minor, fighting major and misconduct for going after Bowey, meaning he was lost to the Senators for 17 minutes.
He drew a load cheer from the home crowd when he left the penalty box three minutes into the third.
NOTES: The Capitals have won the past four meetings between the two teams … Saturday was the second of three meetings between two teams this season. The Capitals were 4-0 winners in Ottawa on Dec. 22 and they meet again in Washington on Feb. 26 … The Senators recalled defencemen Stefan Elliott and Christian Wolanin from Belleville of the AHL on Saturday.
Darren Desaulniers, The Canadian Press