It was a roller coaster of a night for the Washington Capitals, who saw just about everything against the Vegas Golden Knights, from a friend turned foe to giving up a three-goal lead to special teams aplenty. Ultimately, Dylan Strome played hero en route to two big points.

Strome's goal forced overtime, and he then scored the shootout winner en route to a 5-4 win to close out a three-game road swing.

Here are the takeaways:

The Capitals got off to the start they wanted to against Vegas, and they had their youth to thank for it.

Early in the game, Ivan Miroshnichenko and Brandon Duhaime helped recover a fumble before getting the puck up to Hendrix Lapierre, who went off to the races and scored on a breakaway to make it a 1-0 game.

Both Lapierre and Miroshnichenko now have points in back-to-back games as they find chemistry together on the fourth line.

Then, to open the second, Justin Sourdif took matters into his own hands, picking up the puck from Cole Hutson before finding Connor McMichael for a give-and-go play that resulted in Sourdif striking from the slot.

Sourdif becomes the second Washington rookie to hit 15 goals this season, and he also picked up an assist and has 23 points in his last 32 games played.

Meanwhile, McMichael has points in back-to-back games and four of his last six overall, and Hutson has factored in on the Capitals' last five power-play goals since making his debut.

Minutes later, Ryan Leonard called his own number, and Anthony Beauvillier tipped it past Adin Hill to make it 3-0. Leonard's 37 points rank fourth-most among all rookies this season.

While it was a solid start for D.C., things would fall apart quickly in a matter of minutes.

Going on another power play later in the middle frame, the Capitals had the opportunity to continue tilting the ice and adding to their lead. Instead, things went the other direction, and it started at the hands of an old friend.

As the Capitals tired to regroup after a clear, Tom Wilson made an errant drop pass to Ryan Leonard in the defensive zone. From there, Nic Dowd picked it up and then sniped a quick shot past Logan Thompson to make it 3-1. It marked his first goal since being dealt to Vegas at the 2026 NHL Trade Deadline.

On the next shift, with time winding down on the man advantage, Rasmus Andersson got a stretch pass and streaked into the offensive zone before deking past Cole Hutson and beating Thompson on a quick move to pull the Golden Knights to 3-2.

It marked the second time this month and the second time over the last 10 games that D.C. gave up back-to-back shorthanded goals on the same power-play chance.

That failed power play shifted the momentum back in Vegas' favor, and from there, the Knights took control. Jack Eichel would strike to even the score at 3, and by the time the third period rolled around, the Golden Knights had twice as many shots as the Capitals — and had all the momentum, too.

After Mitch Marner gave Vegas a 4-3 lead on the power play, Dylan Strome took a double-minor for high sticking, and after getting out of the box, stepped up to help D.C. escape with a point.

With time winding down on another power play following the double minor, Strome got back on the ice and got open before wiring a one-timer off a Hutson feed home to tie the game 4-4 and force overtime.

It ended a 17-game goal drought for Strome, and with the assist, Hutson picked up his first career multi-point game.

Strome's goal forced overtime and an eventual shootout, where he had the winner while Logan Thompson went 3-for-3 against his former club for the 5-4 win.

Late in the first period, Aliaksei Protas and Nic Dowd were going for the same puck when both of them collided head-to-head by the boards.

Both went down in visible pain, and Dowd was left cut above the eye while Protas had to be helped off the ice, appearing dazed. While Dowd returned for the second, Protas didn't and was ruled out for the remainder of the night with an upper-body injury.

The severity of the injury remains unclear at this time.