Aliaksei Protas’ OT winner pushes road-loving Capitals past Blue Jackets

Aliaksei Protas scored his second goal of the game at 2:23 of overtime and the visiting Washington Capitals rallied to beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 2-1 for their 10th consecutive road win.

Protas took a drop pass from Dylan Strome and beat Jet Greaves with a wrist shot from above the right circle.

The Capitals lead the League with 11 comeback victories this season.

Charlie Lindgren made 32 saves, including three in overtime, for the Capitals, who are 11-1-1 in their last 13 games versus the Blue Jackets. Jacob Chychrun had two assists.

Zach Werenski scored for the Blue Jackets, who have lost five of six. Greaves, who was recalled from the Cleveland Monsters of the American Hockey League on Wednesday, made 35 saves in his first NHL game this season.

Columbus was 1-for-5 on the power play; Washington was 0-for-1.

Werenski gave the Blue Jackets a 1-0 lead at 14:12 of the second period. With Columbus on its fourth power play of the game, Werenski took a pass at center point from Kent Johnson, skated forward and fired a wrist shot through traffic.

It was Werenski’s 100th career goal and he became the first defenseman in franchise history to reach the milestone and the eighth Blue Jackets skater to reach the mark. He also extended his home point streak to 10 games.

Protas tied the score 31 seconds into the third period. Pierre-Luc Dubois carried the puck down into the left circle and then passed to Protas for a one-timer from the slot.

Protas has five points (three goals, two assists) in his past three games.

Lindgren made a stellar swinging stick save to rob Kirill Marchenko in front of the crease midway through the third period; and Greaves answered with a series of saves around the 13:30 mark to keep the game tied.

–Field Level Media