The Washington Capitals were in a tough position to salvage their four-game road trip Wednesday. Already missing Nicklas Backstrom (concussion), the Caps were without captain Alex Ovechkin, who missed the game with a lower-body injury. Without their two leading scorers, the Caps could not muster up any sustained offense in a 5-2 loss to the Ottawa Senators.

Erik Karlsson, Milan Michalek, Chris Phillips and Nick Foligno scored for the Senators, who have won five of their last six games. Meanwhile, the Caps are trending in the opposite direction, having lost three straight after opening the road trip with a win Friday.

John Carlson and Mathieu Perreault scored for Washington in the third period (including the latter with his face off a redirect) to cut Ottawa's lead in half at 4-2, but it would not get any closer than that.

With the road trip over, the Caps return home for a quick stop Friday against the Montreal Canadiens before heading back to Canada to face the Toronto Maple Leafs Saturday.