The Washington Capitals got a 5-2 win on Thursday night over the Montreal Canadiens. It was a win they needed badly as it snapped a two game losing streak. The youth contributed and we even got to see Herndon, VA native Joe Snively make an impact.
Snively first rebounded in a shot from Justin Schultz as the team crashed the net. It came at 5:04 and it was his first NHL goal. 20 seconds later a snipe up the middle from Connor McMichael found the back of the net for his seventh of the season. It was assisted by Lars Eller and Trevor Van Riemsdyk. 2-0 was the score after one with the Caps leading in shots 11-10.
At 3:40 in the second Carl Hagelin scored his third of the season on a sharp angle shot. It was assisted by Martin Fehervary and John Carlson. At 4:09 the Habs got one back from Rem Pitlick.
At 5:18 the Caps answered with Snively’s second goal of the game. It was assisted by Evgeny Kuznetsov and Schultz. It was quite the snipe in front of the net up the middle. Great puck handling too.
At 15:58 Cole Caufield got one back for the Canadiens with a power play goal. 4-2 was the score after 40 with the Caps getting outshot 18-8 in the second.
In the third the Caps got outshot 16-4 and overall 44-23 but they got the insurance goal they needed from Tom Wilson. Snively and Kuznetsov had the helpers at 18:45 for Wilson’s 15th goal of the season. Ilya Samsonov made 42 saves.
Joe Snively said he thought about going for the empty-netter at the end there (would have had a hat trick), but wanted to make the "safer play" and pass to Tom Wilson for the for sure goal.
— Samantha Pell (@SamanthaJPell) February 11, 2022
Snively was so close to his hat trick but thought about making the safe play and feeding the puck to Tom Wilson. Samsonov looked like he got hurt late but Capitals coach Peter Laviolette said he should be fine. He still finished the game.
The Caps will host the Ottawa Senators on Super Bowl Sunday.