Late goals from Connor Brown and Alex Ovechkin broke a tie Wednesday and sent Washington to a 4-2 exhibition victory over the Red Wings in Washington.
Brown scored a power-play goal at 17 minutes, 33 seconds, breaking a 2-2 tie. Ovechkin then clinched it with an empty-net goal with 54 seconds left.
Tyler Bertuzzi (power play) and Michael Rasmussen had the Wings’ goals, while goalie Ville Husso stopped 31 saves.
Connor McMichael and Nick Jensen added Washington’s goals, while Darcy Kuemper stopped 31 shots.
The Wings were one-for-three on the power play, while Washington was one-for-two.
The Wings close out the exhibition season with back-to-back games against Toronto (Friday in Detroit, Saturday in Toronto).
Coach Derek Lalonde will use both of those games to keep evaluating a spirited battle for roster spots.
“Still fairly wide open,” said Lalonde of the competition for jobs, after Wednesday’s morning skate. “We have (two) games left and you’ll see that within that lineup, some of those guys, some of those young guys, they may get (multiple) games to kind of paint the picture for us a little bit.
“They’ve (young prospects) all had positives, which is typical of young guys, and negatives which is fairly typical. That’s why we want to keep seeing them and evaluating.”
ted.kulfan@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @tkulfan