Snively Helps Push Caps Past Habs, 5-2

For the second time this season, the Caps went north of the border and spoiled the coaching debut of a first-time NHL head coach. Herndon, Virginia product Joe Snively scored his first two NHL goals and had three points to pace the Washington attack in a 5-2 win over the Canadiens on Thursday night at Bell Centre in Montreal. The Habs were playing their first game under interim head coach Martin St. Louis, who was named to the post on Wednesday.

Washington opened up an early multi-goal lead over the Habs, whose losing streak hit eight (0-6-2) with Thursday's setback. Playing without captain Alex Ovechkin, the Caps relied on some secondary scoring fueled by an active blueline, and a solid night in net from Ilya Samsonov, who stopped 42 of 44 shots.

"I thought they played hard," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette of the Canadiens. "They got better and stronger as the game went on. Penalties dictated that a little bit, too. They get the zone time and they're getting the jump on the power play three or four times in a row there towards the end of the game.
"There was a couple of opportunities where I thought we could have scored a fifth goal or sixth goal, and it didn't happen. So you keep pushing, but there's no question that they were pushing in the second half."
Snively started the scoring at 5:04 of the first when he drove the net and was in prime position to pot the rebound of a Justin Schultz shot.
Washington doubled its lead just 20 seconds later. Trevor van Riemsdyk started the scoring play with a good defensive play at the Washington line, sending Lars Eller into Montreal ice on a 3-on-2. Eller's fed Connor McMichael in the high slot, and he swept a shot through some traffic and Habs goalie Cayden Primeau for a 2-0 Caps lead.
Carl Hagelin made it 3-0 for the Caps early in the second. Skating down the left-wing wall, Hagelin carried to the bottom of the left circle before firing a bad angle shot that beat Primeau high to the shelf on the short side at 3:40, just 10 seconds after Nic Dowd won a defensive-zone draw.

Montreal responded quickly after the Hagelin goal, shrinking its deficit back to two with a Rem Pitlick goal at 4:09 to make it a 3-1 contest.
Some 69 seconds later, Snively struck for a second time to restore the Caps' three-goal cushion and ending Primeau's night. Evgeny Kuznetsov sent Snively into Montreal ice with a long stretch pass. In a one-on-one situation with veteran blueliner Jeff Petry, Snively smoothly cut to the middle and used the shooting lane to beat Primeau on the glove side for a 4-1 Washington lead at 5:18.
"I thought I came in at an angle where I could get a triangle and get to the middle with some open space," recounts Snively. "One I got there, I just had to beat the goalie and luckily I put it past him."
Primeau departed after permitting four goals on 15 shots in 25:18 of work, yielding the crease to Samuel Montembeault.
Montreal pulled a goal closer on a power play late in the second. After a neutral zone regroup, the Habs re-entered Washington ice. Nick Suzuki hit Cole Caufield with a feed from the left half wall, and Caufield lifted a backhander past Samsonov from the bottom of the circle to make it 4-2 at 15:58 of the middle period.
The Habs pushed hard in the third, aided by a pair of early power plays. Samsonov had double-digit shot totals in each period and he stopped all 16 shots he faced in the third. With just over five minutes remaining, the Habs appeared to have scored to make it 4-3, but the Caps issued a successful coach's challenge to nullify the goal because Montreal was offside on the play.
With more than three minutes left, St. Louis pulled Montembeault for an extra attacker. Samsonov made perhaps his best stop of the night soon after, sprawling to deny Suzuki from in tight.
In the game's penultimate minute, Snively got hold of the puck in neutral ice. Rather than taking a shot at the empty net for the hat trick, he unselfishly fed Tom Wilson for an empty net layup at 18:45, accounting for the 5-2 final.

"That defenseman kind of stepped up on me," says Snively. "I was thinking about shooting, but I wanted to make the safer play and make sure we got a goal."
"That's an unselfish play," says Laviolette. "He moved the puck over, and Willie ended up burying the game. But that just shows you the type of person and player he is."
Back on Dec. 17 in Winnipeg, the Caps spoiled the coaching debut of Dave Lowry, who took over the reins of the Jets earlier in the day following the abrupt resignation of coach Paul Maurice. Washington won that one, 4-2.
St. Louis will have another chance to nail down his first NHL coaching victory on Saturday when the Habs' homestand continues against Columbus. Although his team lost on Thursday, it showed more life and more jump than in most of its recent outings. Montreal outshot Washington 44-23.
"It was definitely fun to be a part of that game," says Petry. "I think the effort and just the way we played from the start to the finish was - I think everyone was working hard. It's not easy making some changes, but I thought everybody bought in and put in the effort. Obviously, the result wasn't there, but the effort [was there] and there was definitely a lot of positive things to build on with a game like that."