Washington Capitals feast on Canadiens

On the night before Thanksgiving the Washington Capitals provided plenty of stuffing in a 6-3 win over the Montreal Canadiens. Despite Ilya Samsonov‘s shutout streak ending he still killed it in net making 25 saves.

The Caps struck first at 3:34 on a wraparound goal by Nic Dowd for his second of the year. Dmitry Orlov and Nick Jensen had the helpers. At 9:43 the Caps doubled their lead on a blast from John Carlson that was assisted by Evgeny Kuznetsov and Alex Ovechkin.

Michael Sgarbossa, who was called up from the Hershey Bears earlier in the day, then stripped the buck and got a lucky bounce. As everyone was looking for the puck it trickled past the goal line. It came at 14:31. 3-1 was the score at the end of one  as the Canadiens got on the board at 18:46 from Jake Evans and the Caps led in shots 16-5.

At 9:05 in the second period the Caps worked the puck around. Ovechkin went to Carlson, Carly shot it and Kuznetsov rebounded it in for his seventh goal of the season. After a bit of a drop off, which was not his fault with the injuries the team has dealt with all season, it’s good to see him break out the bird especially the night before turkey day.

At 18:54 the Habs cut it in half. It came from Cole Caufield. 4-2 was the score after two and shots were even at 10 apiece in the second period.

In the third period the Caps added to their lead. At 1:49 the Caps came down the ice. Connor McMichael fed Ovechkin who went diagonal cross ice to Tom Wilson who whipped it in for his seventh of the season.

Then at 5:57 a snipe from Orlov off a pass from Dowd capped off the scoring for the Caps with six goals on the night. Now that’s a lot of feasting before Thanksgiving.

The Habs got one back at 17:34 from Arthur Lehkonen. 6-3 would be the final. They led in shots 13-8 in the third while the Caps led overall 34-28. Ilya Samsonov’s shutout streak ended as he allowed his first goal in 170:13 minutes of play.

The Caps also lost another player to injury as Justin Schultz left the game with an upper body injury. We’ll see if another call up happens. Maybe Bobby Nardella or Lucas Johansen get their shot?

The Caps are back in action on Black Friday evening against the Florida Panthers with a special 5 p.m. puck drop time.