The Washington Capitals bounced back from Thursday’s loss with an 8-4 win over the Montreal Canadiens in the second game of their five game road trip.
The Caps struck first at 12:23 and never looked back. Nic Dowd had a deflection in front of the net for his 10th goal of the season. The assists came from Dmitry Orlov and Anthony Mantha. The Caps led 1-0 after 1 despite being outshot 15-7.
The Caps added three in the second period. First the Canadiens got one back from Jake Evans at 1:56. Then Mantha scored twice. The first came on a nice break down the ice where he shot the puck and then followed in his own rebound. Lars Eller and Orlov had the helpers. The second came on a breakaway off an assist from Eller for his ninth goal of the season.
Ryan Poehling got the Habs within one at 8:51. The Caps answer with Evgeny Kuznetsov setting up Alex Ovechkin right in front of the net for his 47th of the season and 777th of his career.
4-2 was the score after two. The Caps led in shots 18-9 in the second period.
Poehling added his second goal of the game at 2:22 to make it a 4-3 score. The Caps responded at 3:08 with a backhanded goal from Garnet Hathaway for his 13th of the season. Dowd and Johan Larsson had the helpers.
At 4:30 Orlov ripped in a shot off a pass from Mantha for his 12th of the season. At 9:50 the Caps added a power play goal off a snipe from Justin Schultz with the assists coming from Orlov and Marcus Johansson.
Nick Suzuki scored at 14:53 to pull within three but the Caps answered with another power play goal to put an end to this game. It was a deflection by T.J. Oshie off a Kuznetsov shot for his 10th of the season with John Carlson providing the secondary assist. Vitek Vanecek made 28 saves.
The Caps will continue their road trip out west with the first stop Monday night in Colorado against the Avalanche.