Caps Conjure Comeback Over Canucks, 6-4

Four third-period goals enabled the Caps to overcome a two-goal deficit in the final frame of Monday's game against the Vancouver Canucks at Capital One Arena. The third period outburst lifted Washington to a 6-4 win over Bruce Boudreau's Canucks.

Alex Ovechkin scored his first two goals of the season and added a pair of assists, Evgeny Kuznetsov had a trio of helpers to reach the 500-point plateau for his NHL career, and Marcus Johansson dished out a pair of power-play helpers. In the third, Dylan Strome's power-play goal got the Caps started early, John Carlson tied it, and Conor Sheary delivered the game-winner.
It was a wild one. The Caps scored within the first 76 seconds of each of the three periods, but still trailed 4-3 at that point. Washington gave up three unanswered goals after scoring early in the second, then scored four goals of its own in the third.
"I think we just gave them a few too many chances in the second and kind of let our foot off the gas," says Strome. "There's a lot of veterans in here, and we talked about it and knew what we had to do in the third, and found a way to come back."
Just 36 seconds into Monday's game, the Caps went on an early power play when Vancouver's Brock Boeser was boxed for hi-sticking Carlson. Twenty seconds after that, the Caps had their first 1-0 lead of the young season.
From his customary left dot office, Ovechkin took a feed from Johansson along the goal line. Ovechkin put a wrist shot on net, and it trickled through Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko for a 1-0 Washington lead just 56 seconds into the first frame.
Neither team generated much in the first, and it appeared the Caps might nurse that 1-0 lead to the second until Vancouver netted a whacky one in the waning seconds of the first. The Canucks won a draw in their own end and tied the game less than 10 seconds later. Quinn Hughes threw the puck hard and deep into Washington ice from the Vancouver blueline, and Elias Pettersson was first into the zone, so Caps goalie Darcy Kuemper needed to play it off the back wall. But it hopped his stick and went right to Pettersson, who scored with 7.3 seconds left in the first.
The Caps got the lead right back at the eight-second mark of the second, scoring on a similar play at the same end of the ice. Martin Fehervary dumped the puck in, and it took favorable hop off the side of the net and right to the slot for Lars Eller, who beat Demko on the stick side.
Vancouver then took over the middle stanza, tying the game on Bo Horvat's rebound goal off the rush at 8:03, and then grabbing their first lead of the night 11 seconds later when Curtis Lazar tipped home Andrei Kuzmenko's shot off the rush to make it 3-2 for the visitors.
With 2:26 left in the third, J.T. Miller scored on a laser of a shot from the left circle on the Vancouver power play, sending the Caps to the third in a two-goal hole.
But Horvat aided the Caps' cause with a cross-checking penalty at 1:06 of the third, and this time Washington needed only 10 seconds of power play time to light the lamp, Strome scoring his first as a Capital on a goalmouth scramble at 1:16.
Just before the midpoint of the third, Carlson tied it with a precision shot from just below the right dot. The shot went to the shelf from the short side, and the big blueliner scored his first of the season after taking a feed from Ovechkin, who was up top in the zone, a bit of a reversal of so many Washington power play goals of recent vintage. Carlson's goal made it a 4-4 contest at 8:43 of the third.
"I was looking for Kuzy coming out of the corner for the most part," recounts Carlson of the tying tally. "So I think that kind of made [Demko} at least lean a little bit, because he's pretty big. It's not the easiest shot to make on a huge goaltender like that, so you're looking for someone coming off the backside always first, and then shooting second."
At the start of the third, Caps coach Peter Laviolette moved Sheary from the fourth line to the right side of the top unit with Ovechkin and Kuznetsov, and the moved paid scoreboard dividends shortly after the midpoint of the third. Kuznetsov entered the zone and fed Ovechkin above the left circle as Sheary snuck his way to the back door. Ovechkin put it right on the winger's tape, and Sheary tapped in his third goal in four games at 12:44.
Late in the third, Washington struck again on the rush with Nick Jensen leading a 3-on-2 and carrying into the zone. His lead feed for Ovechkin was too long, but the captain retrieved it from the corner put it high in the zone for Kuznetsov, who sent it back to Ovechkin for a back door tap in at 17:02. When Boudreau's subsequent coach's challenge - alleging that the Caps were offside - failed, the Caps went on the power play, essentially sealing the victory.
"Pretty even game to start," begins Laviolette. "It was low chance on both sides, the first period, like I mean really low. It was tough to give up that goal on the bounce, and Kuemps had a couple of tough ones tonight, and they're not on him. That was one, and then the one where they shot it from the point and it hits [Lazar's] stick and sends the puck in the other direction; he's got no chance on it. Kind of fluky, a little bit.
"We find ourselves down going into the third period and turning the puck over too much - it keeps us from playing fast and getting in their end. I thought in the third period we straightened it out and played a really good third period, maybe our best period of the year and our best offensive period of the year. We were on the attack and we were pushing the whole time."
Coughing up a multi-goal lead for the third time in as many games this season, Boudreau's Canucks fell to 0-3-0 with the loss, and his fourth chance at claiming NHL victory No. 600 went by the wayside. He'll get another chance at the milestone on Tuesday in Columbus.
"They came at us pretty good, and we just didn't handle it very well," lamented the former Caps coach afterwards.