Caps win fifth straight, take first place

Via @NHL

After a dominating win over the Lightning on home ice 4-2, the Capitals headed to the Air Canada Centre in Toronto on Saturday night to take on the Maple Leafs in the second of back-to-back games.  The Caps would prevail 4-2. 

Both teams were fighting for the first goal at the start of the game.  After a commotion in front of the net, the Leafs couldn’t get anything past Braden Holtby and the Capitals took transition of the puck and went down the ice.  Jason Chimera raced down the left side ice with the puck and put his wrist shot past goaltender Jonathan Bernier to give Washington the 1-0 lead.  Chimera’s seventh goal of the season came at 3:42 into the game.  Toronto would tie the game at 6:13 into the first, just a few minutes after the Chimera goal.  The goal came on a Peter Holland snap shot assisted by Dion Pheneuf.  The Caps weren’t able to get a rebound on the shot by Pheneuf and Holland made them pay.  The teams headed to the locker room after the first period with the score tied at one.  The Maple Leafs outshot the Capitals in the first frame 16-4.

            At 4:06 in the second period the Caps took the lead 2-1 on a goal by Tom Wilson, his first of the season.  There was a turnover by Morgan Reilly as he coughed up the puck over by the net on their end on the right side and Wilson was there to scoop up the loose puck and put it past Bernier.  Wilson used a spin move as he shot the puck and fell to the ground.  Matt Niskanen and Wilson’s roommate, Michael Latta were credited with assists.  Wilson’s first goal of the season was a special one as he scored in his hometown.  A few minutes later at 6:17, Toronto was on the power play and nine seconds later the game was tied.   John Carlson was sent to the box for the Caps with an interference call.  On a shot by Dion Phaneuf, Leo Komarov tipped the puck in and the game was tied at two.  At 10:06, Nazem Kadri got sent to the sin bin for high sticking as the Capitals headed to the power play.  A shot by Alex Ovechkin from the right side deflect off of Marcus Johansson into the net for the 3-2 lead.  The goal came at 11:08.  Johansson then drew an interference call from Phaneuf to go back on the power play and Justin Williams cashed in with a slapshot goal and the Caps went up 4-2. Chimera got the assist and now has six power play points on the season, a career high.  Chimera had the puck down on the right side of the net and passed it to Williams, who was right beside him, as he fired and scored.   

            At 10:08 into the third, Ovechkin was called for crosschecking against Tyler Bozak.  The Leafs couldn’t capitalize on the power play as Holtby made some big saves and some shots went off the pipe.  That was their best chance to get back in the game but Holtby and the Caps held on for the 4-2 victory. 

            The Leafs outshot the Caps 33-23 and Holtby made 29 saves in the win.  After playing five games in seven days, the Capitals will have some time off before they take on the Canadians in Montreal on Thursday night with a 7:30 p.m. puck drop.  Due to the Rangers dropping three in a row the Caps are now in first place in the Metropolitan Divison. 

Offense wakes up as Caps beat Jets

The Washington Capitals entertained the Winnipeg Jets on Wednesday night from Verizon Center.  The Caps are coming off of a 1-0 win over the Edmonton Oilers from Monday night.  It was the fourth game of a season-long five game home-stand.  The Capitals would get their third straight win with a final score of 5-3.

Washington got off to a great start in the game after not being able to score the other night until the third period.  After a shot by John Carlson from the right side of the net bounced off the wall coming off a pass from Evgeny Kuznetsov, Justin Williams rebounded the puck into the net from the corner.  Williams, with that goal, is now two points shy of 600 for his career.  The goal came 1:12 into the game.  A wrist shot by Tyler Myers tied the game about five minutes later.  The Jets would take the lead 2-1 with a goal by Andrew Ladd.  Alex Ovechkin would tie the game at two with just 1:14 to go until the first intermission.  After a strong pass by John Carlson from the middle got caught in Ovechkin's skates, he used great awareness to get the puck on his stick and shot it right inside the net.  It looked like Ovi used his left leg to get the puck on the stick.  It was Alex Ovechkin's 11th goal of the season.

In the second period, the Capitals took the lead back at 10:03.  After Dmitry Orlov got the puck to Nate Schmidt from the right side, Schmidt got the puck into the middle where Nicklas Backstrom tapped the puck past Winnipeg net minder Michael Hutchinson for the 3-2 lead.  The Jets tied it on the power play as former Capital, Mathieu Perreualt got a snapshot past Braden Holtby at 13:53.  The Capitals responded at 16:22 as Orlov continued his hot streak.  Off a pass from Kuznetsov from the top of the box, Orlov buried a slapshot in the net for his third straight goal in as many nights.  Saturday night, he was like a magician with the puck as nobody could find the puck when it was actually with Orlov the entire time.  By then it was too late.  On Monday night, he was the lone player who scored as it came late in the third period.

The Capitals were looking for an insurance goal in this back and fourth game as it headed into the third period.  They got it late in third with 6:14 to go as Kuznetsov scored on a backhand.  The Capitals would win 5-3.  On "Black Friday" the Caps will return to the ice to take on the Lightning at 5:00 in the final game of a five game home-stand from Verizon Center.

via @WashCaps