WASHINGTON — In a division race where one point might make all the difference, the Washington Capitals decided to practice their shootouts earlier this week. The one-on-one competition has been a surprising weakness for the team and for goaltender Braden Holtby in particular, who was winless in the showdowns before Thursday night.

Trotz’s intuition was spot on in a crucial Metropolitan Division matchup with the Columbus Blue Jackets, a game with postseason implications that felt every bit like a playoff contest. The Capitals prevailed with a 2-1 shootout win as Holtby made two saves to give Washington 104 points, now two clear of the Pittsburgh Penguins and three of Columbus.

“Holts was the guy, and that was great,” Trotz said. “That extra point might be huge. It might be absolutely huge.”

T.J. Oshie was the lone player to score in the shootout, but Holtby was the guy all night long. The game was a goaltending duel between Sergei Bobrovsky and Holtby, two of the league’s top goaltenders this season. Bobrovsky made a whopping 44 saves through the three-on-three overtime period and Holtby made 29, each allowing just one goal in regulation.

“It’s a great opponent,” defenseman John Carlson said. “You never know what’s going to happen, so you’ve got to always play hard and try to gain the upper hand, no matter if we play them, if we don’t, whatever it works out to be.”

The drama that everyone expected at Verizon Center arrived in the third period. After a scoreless 40 minutes, big shots from defensemen got each team on the board. Less than a minute after second intermission, a shot from Columbus’ Brandon Dubinsky caromed off the goal post and right to defenseman Seth Jones. With traffic in front, Jones shot the puck through several bodies and into the net before Holtby could dive over in time.

The Capitals responded with a push in the Blue Jackets’ zone, and after being denied by Bobrovsky on 34 straight shots, the 35th went in. Defenseman Dmitry Orlov’s slap shot from the blue line beat Bobrovsky high on his glove side 6:39 into the third period to tie the game, prompting Orlov to drop to one knee and fist-pump happily at center ice.

“Our scoring chances, I mean, they were pretty one-sided,” Trotz said. “Sometimes those can be frustrating. You’re getting lots of chances, you have lots of zone time, you have lots of puck possession, all those things, and you’re sitting there at 0-0 and you’re going, just one bounce or a power-play goal by them and then you’re chasing it. We were very calm, which is a good sign.”

Orlov’s shot set the stage for overtime, ensuring each team got at least a point out of the game. Pittsburgh also added a point to its total with its shootout loss to the Ottawa Senators, but the extra point keeps Washington ahead of both the Penguins and the Blue Jackets in a congested Metropolitan Division.