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Caps hope to match franchise-best start vs. Senators

Oct 15, 2011 - 2:39 PM (Sports Network) - The 3-0 Capitals are one victory away from matching the best start in club history. They stand a good chance of accomplishing the feat tonight given a home meeting with the Senators.

Washington will look to extend a 10-game home point streak in its series with Ottawa after coming through with a big victory on Thursday.

Matched up against the rival Penguins, the Capitals yielded a game-tying goal with 3:45 left in regulation, but rebounded for a 3-2 win when Dennis Wideman converted a Nicklas Backstrom feed into the game-winning goal 2:48 into overtime. The tally came on Washington's only power play of the game.

Backstrom notched his fourth assist in three games, while Mike Knuble and Alex Ovechkin both scored their first goal of the season for a Capitals club that is off to the fifth 3-0 start in team history and has gone past regulation in all three of those wins.

Washington won a club-record four straight to begin a season in 1991-92 and again in 1997-98.

After giving up five goals to win his Capitals debut on Monday, Tomas Vokoun halted 39 of the 41 shots he faced versus the Penguins, including 17 in the third period.

"He was pretty good tonight like he is most nights", said Washington head coach Bruce Boudreau about Vokoun. "They had a bunch of close-in shots and he was there for all of them."

Boudreau's club could be without Jay Beagle tonight after the young center was bloodied in a fight with Pittsburgh's Aaron Asham, who connected with two punches to Beagle's jaw. The center had to be helped off the ice.

The Capitals took three of four versus the Senators last year, including both tests on home ice. They are 9-0-1 in their last 10 as the host in this series, outscoring Ottawa 47-25 in that span, and the Sens haven't captured a road game in regulation in this series since March 12, 2006.

Ottawa will look to put up a better fight tonight than it did on Thursday versus Colorado. The Senators were blitzed, 7-1, yielding four goals in the third frame to turn it into a rout.

"We're early in the year, a lot of new guys playing together and you hope that there were some lessons learned, and move forward," Ottawa defenseman Chris Phillips said.

Milan Michalek netted Ottawa's only goal while on the power play as the club lost for the third time in four games to begin the year. The Senators allowed four goals on six Avalanche power plays and were outshot by a 39-16 margin.

Faced with constant pressure, Craig Anderson came up with 32 saves.

"They had a power play early in the game and started pounding a lot of pucks towards the net and it just snowballs," Anderson said. "When you start putting a lot of pucks at the net, then you end up with a lot of rebounds and extra chances and before you know it, the shots are what they are."

Defenseman Erik Karlsson had an assist, giving him six helpers over Ottawa's first four games.