Caps Double Up Habs, 6-3

Back from a weeklong trip to the West Coast, the Caps avoided the dreaded doldrums of the first game back home from a long trip on Wednesday. Hosting the Montreal Canadiens in their traditional Thanksgiving Eve contest, the Caps doubled up the Habs with a six-pack attack, 6-3.

Six different Caps found the back of the net, and Washington coach Peter Laviolette earned the 685th win of his NHL career, moving past Pat Quinn and into sole possession of 11th place on the League's all-time coaching wins list. Washington scored three times in the first period and it had the Habs on their heels in their own end for long stretches.
"What we did really well is that we played really fast," says Caps center Nic Dowd. "We got the puck into their zone, we the puck early and had a lot of recoveries. And then I think we were able to make plays from there."
Right after killing off an early delay of game penalty on Dmitry Orlov, the Caps got the jump on the Habs. Orlov hopped out of the box and into the defensive zone, and quickly sent Dowd up ice with a feed from the half-wall. Dowd carried down the left side, going wide around Habs defenseman Jeff Petry and then misfiring on a shot from in tight. But he maintained possession and carried around the cage and shoveled a backhander past Montreal netminder Jake Allen on the short side at 3:34.

Just ahead of the midpoint of the first, the Caps doubled their lead on their first power play opportunity of the evening. From down low on the right side, Evgeny Kuznetsov patiently surveyed before putting the puck on a tee for John Carlson at center point. Carlson's one-timer beat Allen to make it 2-0 at 9:43.
In the back half of the frame, the Caps extended their lead once again. Called up from AHL Hershey earlier in the day, Mike Sgarbossa and his linemates spent much of the first period buzzing around in Montreal ice. They were doing exactly that when Habs center Cedric Paquette got a hold of the puck and tried to fling it out of the zone on his backhand. The puck hit Sgarbossa in the chest then glanced off a Montreal defender's skate and behind Allen to make it a 3-0 game at 14:29.
Late in the first period, the Canadiens got on the board, ending Ilya Samsonov's shutout streak at 170 minutes and 13 seconds.
After trying and failing twice to exit their end, the Caps turned it over down low and Jake Evans scored on a shot from the slot at 18:46, forcing Washington to settle for a two-goal lead going into the second period.
Washington got that goal back on a pretty passing sequence just ahead of the midpoint of the middle period. Aliaksei Protas won a board battle behind the Montreal net, putting the puck to the front for Alex Ovechkin, who put a backhand feed toward the right point for Carlson. Carlson wound up as if the crank a one-timer, but instead put a perfect slap pass to the left post for Kuznetsov, who tapped it home to make it a 4-1 game at 9:05.
For the second straight period, the Habs cut a three-goal Washington lead to two goals in the penultimate minute of the period.
The Caps lost control of the puck high in the Montreal end, enabling the Habs to come up ice on a 2-on-1 rush with Cole Caufield carrying up the left side. Caufield ripped a shot over the net, but followed up, going toward the opposite post and one-timing the bounce toward the net. Initially, it appeared as though Samsonov made a great save on the play, but video review showed the puck crossed the red line. Caufield's goal made it 4-2 at 18:54.
Once again, Washington responded to restore its three-goal cushion, getting a Tom Wilson goal early in the third off a sublime feed from Ovechkin. The Caps captain carried down the right side and had Wilson on his off wing on a 2-on-1 rush. Everyone in the building thought Ovechkin was going to shoot, so when he fed Wilson for the one-timer, the winger had an empty net and he made it 5-2 at 1:49 of the third.

"I think based on the fact that the puck is on his stick, you have to assume that he's shooting the puck," says Laviolette of Ovechkin. "A really good play by him, an unselfish play, the right play. Tom was wide open for a back door pass."
Just ahead of the six-minute mark, Orlov closed out the scoring with a shot from the left half-wall while Carl Hagelin supplied traffic in front and occupied a defender. Orlovs' goal made it 6-2 at 5:57.
Artturi Lehkonen scored with 2:26 left to account for the 6-3 final.
The Caps avoided losing two in a row, and they avoided a turkey in their first game back from a long trip.

"For whatever reason, there's that home game that sits there after a long road trip," says Laviolette. "And oftentimes it just doesn't go the way that you want. To get that first period and to play the period that we wanted to play, I think that was really important. It just set the tone for the day. And when it slipped a little bit in the second, we caught it and I thought we kept pushing in the third."
It wasn't all good news for Washington on Wednesday. Defenseman Justin Schultz left the game late in the first period with an upper body injury and did not return. The Caps have had a lot of players in and out of the lineup this season, and they played without five regular forwards on Wednesday. But they've had the same six defensemen - and same pairings - through 20 games this season.
"I think as an organization, we've got great players," says Caps blueliner Nick Jensen. "Guys have been stepping in and playing hard and playing fast, and that's the kind of style we want to play."
Ten of Montreal's 14 regulation losses this season have come by a margin of three or more goals.
"Those two quick goals put on our heels," laments Habs coach Dominique Ducharme. "We cannot wait to come back to the room, and then I talk to [the players] and they talk to themselves and then we come back. We're better. We've got to do it within the game. And we need to have those reactions after a goal, after a couple of shifts where the other team is gaining momentum a little bit. We need to come back and turn this thing around quicker."