The Washington Capitals 13 game point streak came to an end on Friday night.
It ended with a 5-2 thrashing by the Montreal Canadiens in a contest that the Washington Capitals seemed out of right from the start. The Capitals went with 11 forwards and seven defensemen in Friday night’s game with Carl Hagelin still recovering from his upper body injury.
The first period was scoreless with Montreal dominating possession throughout. They led in shots 26-16 including a 15-9 edge in shots on goal.
The fireworks began in the second period when Alex Ovechkin leveled Jonathan Drouin with a hit right into his left shoulder. Ovechkin wasn’t penalized on what looked like a clean hit.
“It’s hockey. It’s not a ballet,” Ovechkin told the media after the game.
The Canadiens got on the board at 6:22 with a goal from Phillip Danault right in front of the net. Tomas Tatar and Brendan Gallagher were credited with the assists. The Canadiens doubled their lead at 9:16 with a one-time blast from Shea Weber off a pass from Ben Chiarot. Danault had the secondary assist.
At 11:41 it was 3-0 with Jordan Weal wheeling around the net and backhanding it past Capitals netminder Ilya Samsonov. Nate Thompson and Tatar were credited with the helpers. At 14:42 it was 4-0 from Nick Suzuki crashing the net and burying in a pass from Danault. Tatar once again had the secondary assist. 4-0 was the score heading into the second intermission and for the second period in a row, the Caps were outshot 15-9.
The Capitals began the third period with their first power play of the night when Jeff Petry was whistled for interference just over four minutes in. Who else but Alex Ovechkin and where else but his office on the left face-off circle to get the Caps on the board at 5:34. John Carlson and Nicklas Backstrom were credited with the assists. It was Ovechkin’s 14th goal of the season.
Late in the third at 15:38 the Caps struck again with Evgeny Kuznetsov getting a feed from Tom Wilson and finishing a breakaway for his ninth of the season.
The late push by Washington wouldn’t be enough however as Tatar scored on an empty netter to seal the 5-2 win. Shots were even at 10 in the third period but the Capitals were outshot overall 40-28. Samsonov stopped 35 of the 39 shots he faced in the loss for an .897 save percentage.
The Capitals will look to bounce back tonight in Boston against the Bruins.