Final Score: Washington 5, NY Islanders 4 (OT)

Uniondale, NY (Sports Network) - Alex Ovechkin's laser wrist shot from the slot in the waning seconds of overtime lifted the Washington Capitals to a 5-4 win over the New York Islanders at Nassau Coliseum.

Ovechkin also scored in regulation along with Boyd Gordon, Brooks Laich and Milan Jurcina for the Capitals, who have won four consecutive games. Brent Johnson stopped 35 shots in the victory.

Doug Weight, Richard Park, Andy Sutton and Jon Sim scored for struggling New York, which has lost seven straight games and is winless in December. Joey MacDonald allowed five goals on 40 shots in the losing effort.

New York entered the third period trailing 4-2 but managed to score twice in the third to force overtime.

Sutton's blast from the left point with 8:41 remaining in regulation cut the New York deficit to one. Soon after, with five-plus minutes to go, Park had a breakaway chance after his minor penalty expired, as he sped out of the penalty box and broke in all alone but couldn't muster a shot on goal.

However, with 2:13 to go, Mark Streit's wrist shot from the centerpoint was deflected by Sim from atop the crease and the contest was knotted at 4-4.

The overtime period was mostly uneventful until Ovechkin won it at 4:49. Late in the extra session, he picked up a loose puck in the Washington offensive zone, turned toward to net and released his patented wrist shot that MacDonald barely saw until the light went on behind him and the Caps skated off with the victory.

After Gordon's goal 2:54 following the opening faceoff, the Capitals opened a two-goal lead at the 14:18 mark of the first period. Laich directed the puck toward the net but not at full speed. MacDonald tried to poke it away with his stick, but somehow missed and the disc slid under him and over the goal line.

Less than two minutes later, the Islanders cut their deficit in half on Weight's wrist shot from the left point. The power-play tally was Weight's seventh goal of the season.

Jurcina's third goal at 6:07 of the second restored Washington's two-goal advantage. He released a wrist shot from the right point that deflected off the body of Sim and the change in direction fooled MacDonald.

With 5:28 to go in the second stanza, the Isles climbed within 4-2 via a rocket one-timer by Park while New York was on the power play. Billy Guerin held the puck inside the right circle and sent a soft pass into the high slot that Park ripped home for his sixth goal of the year.

However, the Caps once again moved ahead by two just over two minutes later on a tic-tac-toe passing play that ended with an easy Ovechkin tap-in goal. Nicklas Backstrom passed from the rear boards to Alexander Semin, who was stationed inside the right circle. Semin quickly sent the puck across the low slot to Ovechkin, who simply punched it into the back of the cage past a sliding and out-of-position MacDonald at 16:35.

Game Notes

The Capitals have been victorious in six of their last seven games overall and improved to 7-9-2 on the road this season...Despite the victory, the Caps have won only twice in their last eight trips to Uniondale...The Isles finished 2- for-5 on the power play while the Caps were 0-for-3 with the extra skater.