Chimera Nets Overtime Winner as the Caps Beat the Blue Jackets

The Columbus Blue Jackets faced off against the Washington Capitals for the first time this season on Thursday night. Despite being out of playoff contention, the team fought back multiple times until they eventually fell to the Caps in overtime.

The Capitals were looking to get off to a fast start against a Columbus team missing its leader, captain Rick Nash, and that's exactly what they did. John Carlson sneaked up through a few Columbus players and dropped off the puck to Brooks Laich.

Laich shot it on net and the rebound came right out to Carlson. The rookie backhanded it in for his seventh goal of the season in his 100th career game.

“Sometimes when we get a lead so early we kind of settle in instead of keep pushing the pace and that was a classic example of what we did tonight," said Carlson. "It’s good we found a way to win. It was a good character win to pull it back after we had so many leads throughout the game. At the end of the day we were happy but not satisfied.”

The game slowed down after that goal until midway through the second period when the two teams combined for four goals in a span of 2:17.

Antoine Vermette scored the first goal for the Blue Jackets when no Capital picked him up in the slot. Mike Knuble answered back for the Caps a little over a minute later when Columbus goaltender Steve Mason was unable to hold onto a Nick Backstrom shot.

Fedor Tyutin tied the game back up on a shot from the point that beat Michal Neuvirth stick side, but the tie would only last for 13 seconds when Marco Sturm found Jason Arnott alone in the slot for the veteran forward's 16th goal of the season.

Scottie Upshall tied the game up for Columbus on a strong wrister with a little over five minutes left to play after the Blue Jackets stepped up the pressure and carried play for the majority of the third period.

The Capitals had been attempting to play shutdown defense, but were doing so with only five defensemen. John Erskine only played one shift after fighting Jared Boll in the first period.

In addition, Tyler Sloan was playing for the injured Dennis Wideman, who was hurt in the . News broke during the game that Wideman was actually in the hospital with a hematoma and had to have blood drained from his leg to relieve the pressure.

"He's been firing off some pictures. They're pretty graphic," said Mike Knuble when asked about Wideman's injury. "It's pretty grotesque how Dennis is opened up right now. I think he's just...high all the time right now dealing with the pain."

The team may have to make an emergency call up from Hershey for the weekend if John Erskine has to miss any games. If so, look to possibly see Brian Fahey or Patrick McNeill in a Caps jersey against Buffalo on Saturday night.

“It happens to everybody. Everybody’s got injuries. I’ve been on a lot of winning teams and they’ve had to fight with more guys being out than we have," said head coach Bruce Boudreau after the game.

The game went to overtime tied at three, but Laich and Carlson connected again to set up the game winner from former Blue Jacket Jason Chimera.

Laich fired the initial shot which was deflected by a defenseman and the puck trickled to Chimera, who tapped it into the open net for his first game winning goal as a Capital.

"It kind of ended up right on my tape so it’s hard to miss those ones, but those are nice. Especially nice against your old team. It was a good night," said Chimera after the game.

With the win, the Capitals moved over 100 points for the third consecutive season and now trail the Philadelphia Flyers by one point for first place in the Eastern Conference with five games remaining.

Additional Notes

- This is the second time in franchise history that the team has hit the 100 point plateau in three straight seasons. The first was in 1983-1986.

- John Carlson now has 35 points on the season, just two behind Greg Theberge (1981-82) and Robert Picard (1977-78) for the Capitals rookie record for points by a defenseman.

- The Capitals have now won six of their last seven games that went past regulation after losing eight in a row in extra time earlier in the season.

- The absence of Rick Nash didn't seem to hurt Columbus. He was replaced in the lineup by Tomas Kubalik, who was playing in his first career NHL game. He assisted on both 2nd period Columbus goals.