Recap: Ottawa vs. Washington

Ottawa, ON (Sports Network) - Sergei Gonchar scored the winner on the power play with 2:30 left in the game as the Ottawa Senators rallied for a 3-2 win over the Washington Capitals.

Milan Michalek and Jim O'Brien each scored a goal for the Senators, who snapped a two-game slide. Craig Anderson made 31 saves in the win.

Troy Brouwer and Matt Hendricks each scored for the Capitals, who were coming off their only win of the season on Sunday against Buffalo. Michal Neuvirth made 24 stops in the loss.

Trailing by a goal going into the third period, the Senators tied the game 2:20 in when a right circle faceoff was won by Kyle Turris and he pushed it ahead. Michalek quickly jumped on the puck and backhanded it in for his second goal of the season.

With 3:36 to play in the game, Joel Ward was called for high sticking and the Senators' power play went to work. Erik Karlsson was allowed to skate with the puck through the neutral zone and over to the left boards. From there, he sent a pass to the high slot where Gonchar one-timed the puck and it went off a Cap before going in with 2:30 to play.

"This wasn't an easy one because we didn't come out strong and quickly fell behind," said Gonchar. "But we fought back and I think this game shows a lot about the character of our team."

Washington got Neuvirth out of the net for an extra attacker, but the team was unable to net the equalizer.

"You never want to give up goals late in the period or late in the game," said Brouwer. "This was a tough one for us to lose tonight but we'll get back together and see if we can't figure this out."

The Capitals got on the board at the 13:15 mark of the first period. Wojtek Wolski brought the puck into the Ottawa end down the left wing and sent a short pass over to the slot for Brouwer, who went to the backhand to get the puck past Anderson for a 1-0 lead.

It was a 2-0 game with 2:17 to play in the opening frame as a shot by John Erskine at a sharp angle from the right side was tipped in by Hendricks for his second of the season.

The second period nearly passed without a score, but Ottawa was able to score late to cut into its deficit. Erik Condra took the puck into the zone down the left wing and cut over to the middle. He then sent the puck down low where O'Brien redirected it in to make it a 2-1 game with 1:23 left in the frame.