From practice at Kettler Ice Plex to the final horn at Verizon, the Washington Capitals played today like a team that wants to keep on winning. And win they did. They soundly beat the Montreal Canadiens—the Atlantic Division’s first place team 3-1. With this loss, the Habs slip to second place in their div. Not too shabby a day.
Highlights
In the beginning of the game, Jay Beagle had a nice chance but could not put the puck in the net. Then Evgeny Kuznetsov deflects a Nate Schmidt shot and the Capitals are on the board first at the 6:45 mark of the first period.
Tom Wilson and Jarred Tinordi drop the gloves at the 12:12 mark, receiving matching five-minute majors. Then, after Daniel Carr goes to the box, the Caps’ second power play chance was better than the first but alas no goal.
A little roughing occurred when P.K. Subban expressed displeasure with Jason Chimera. Jay Beagle, with a beauty of a goal, doubles the Caps lead 1:30 into the second period, 2-0 Caps.
This bring Chimmer’s season goal count to 10 and the number of Caps with double digit goals to six.
But 24 seconds later, Carr got the Habs on the board, 2-1 Caps. Later in the period, Nicklas Backstrom went to the box for slashing on P.K. Subban and there was question of if Subban embellished. He did not get a penalty but Caps fans would boo him for the rest of the game.
11:15 into the third period, Jason Chimera sped by the Habs and put one past Condon, Caps up 3-1. We even saw our first “embellishment” penalty when Montreal’s Paul Bryon took a dive on Brooks Laich’s interference penalty. There was much chatter on Twitter about this one!
Before the period was over Alex Ovechkin would take a puck to the forearm but all is believed to be well with him. Hit by a shot from his teammate Matt Niskanen, according to CSN-DC.
The Canadiens pulled Mike Condon for the extra attacker with 2:21 left in the game; however, it didn’t help them. The Caps extend their winning streak to seven games with a 3-1 victory over the Canadiens.
Three Stars
The three stars of the night went to: Jay Beagle, Tom Wilson, and Nate Schmidt.
Salute to our Military
Tonight the Washington Capitals honored retired Colonel Richardson for his service.