DALLAS — Alexander Semin is now tied with countryman Evgeni Malkin for the NHL scoring lead with 14 points, and none has been bigger than No. 14.
Semin capped a three-point night with his team-best seventh goal of the season 2:17 into overtime to help the Washington Capitals to a wild 6-5 victory over the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center.
“I think we got lucky at the end - we should have won in regular time,” Tomas Fleischmann said. “They kept coming hard. They deserved the tie, and we deserved the OT [win].”
Fleischmann and Sergei Fedorov had two goals each for the Caps, who broke a three-game losing streak and salvaged two points on this three-game road trip against Western Conference opponents.
Mike Modano knotted the score at 5-5 with 56.4 seconds left in regulation. Stars captain Brenden Morrow was behind the net, and Modano was stationed in front for a one-timer.
Tyler Sloan nearly made a fatal error in his own end of the ice but made up for it seconds later at the other end to give the Caps a 5-4 lead. Sloan went searching for a big hit, catapulting himself into the boards early in the third period. Problem was Sloan whiffed and Loui Eriksson had a clean break to the net.
After the Caps foiled the threat, there was Sloan in the offensive zone, banging home a rebound off a shot by Viktor Kozlov for his first NHL goal. A 27-year-old defenseman, Sloan made his NHL debut Tuesday night in his hometown of Calgary. His goal Saturday broke a 4-4 tie 2:22 into the final period.
“I think he didn’t want to come to the bench because I was screaming for him getting walked on the original rush,” Caps coach Bruce Boudreau said. “That is one of his great attributes is his legs. He’s got great speed. … I was very happy for him.”
Eriksson had pulled the Stars even 56 seconds into the period. Mike Ribeiro went around Caps defenseman John Erskine and flung the puck toward the net. It hit Caps goalie Jose Theodore, who momentarily lost sight of the puck, and Eriksson slipped it between his legs.
Fedorov’s early game-tying goal was the 474th of his career - the most by a Russian-born player in NHL history (Alexander Mogilny had 473).
His second goal of the evening pushed the Caps in front 11:23 into the second period and gave him No. 475. Alexander Semin stole the puck near the opposing blue line, and a mini two-on-one ensued. He slipped the puck to his Russian mentor, who backhanded a shot past Dallas goalie Marty Turco.
Fleischmann scored his second of the game for a 4-2 lead after a pair of Dallas gaffes. Turco flubbed a clearing attempt, and then rookie Fabian Brunnstrom also failed to get the puck past Michael Nylander, who fed Fleischmann for a slap shot into the top right corner of the net at 15:16.
“Flash, when he shoots, it opens up his shiftiness,” said Boudreau, who implored Fleischmann to shoot more before the game. “He could have had four.”
B.J. Crombeen redirected a pass from Trevor Daley 39 seconds later to cut the lead in half. Dallas’ rush started with a failed Washington drop pass near the opposite blue line, which Mike Modano collected and got to Daley. It was the first career goal for Crombeen, whose father, Mike, had 55 goals in 475 NHL games from 1978 to 1985.
Fleischmann made it 2-1 Caps on a nifty feed from Nylander at 16:58. Fleischmann started the rush by taking the puck off Brunnstrom along the right wall in his own end. Nylander went around a defenseman and hit Fleischmann with a perfect pass. Both Nylander and Fleischmann had been pointless in the previous three games.
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