Zetterlund’s late goal leads Senators to 4-3 victory over Capitals

OTTAWA — Fabian Zetterlund’s 10th goal of the season proved to be a big one as the Ottawa Senators beat the Washington Capitals 4-3 Thursday afternoon.

Zetterlund scored with less than two and a half minutes remaining in regulation when he fired a shot short side past Capitals goaltender Logan Thompson.

His goal came less than two minutes after Washington’s Aliaksei Protas tied the game at 3-3.

David Perron, Ridly Greig and Nick Jensen also scored for Ottawa, while Leevi Merilainen stopped 26 shots to snap a three-game losing streak.

The Capitals (21-15-5), who were playing the back half of a back-to-back, had jumped out to a 2-0 lead on goals from Tom Wilson and Dylan Strome. Thompson made 28 saves.

After Merilainen stopped a flurry of shots from in close Wilson jumped on a loose puck for his team-leading 22nd of the season giving the Capitals an early 1-0 lead.

Just over a minute later, Protas went awkwardly into the boards after he and Artem Zub collided racing for a puck. Protas was slow to get up and left the game but returned later in the period.

The first-period chippiness continued when Senators defenceman Thomas Chabot was taken down hard by Justin Sourdif. Drake Batherson dropped the gloves with Sourdif minutes later for the Senators forward’s third career fight.

Strome made it 2-0 taking a Ryan Leonard pass and wristed a long shot through traffic to beat a screened Merilainen.

Jensen cut the lead in half scoring on a Jake Sanderson rebound at 7:42 of the second.

Batherson had a wide-open net late in the second period, but his shot rang off the post. But Greig tied it with 28.8 seconds left in the frame when he deflected a shot that Thompson inadvertently pushed across the goal-line.

Ottawa (19-15-5) then took its first lead 2:47 into the third on a goal from Perron.

TAKEAWAYS

Senators: Ottawa gave up way too many chances from in close early in the game, but managed to improve as the game went on.

Capitals: Washington started strong but the fact they were playing the back half of a back-to-back showed late in the game.

KEY STAT

Jake Sanderson recorded his 20th assist of 2025-26 and became the first defenceman in Senators’ history to reach the mark in each of his first four seasons.

KEY MOMENT

Stephen Halliday fed Perron out front to one-time it past Thompson to give the Senators their first lead of the game.

UP NEXT

Senators: The Senators hosts the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday.

Capitals: Washington hosts the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 1, 2026