*Photo from Stars and Sticks*
People can say that this team is old, but they'll still play their hearts out. John Carlson had a goal and an assist, Alex Ovechkin had a 4 point night, and the Washington Capitals rallied to defeat the Vancouver Canucks with a 6-4 victory on Monday night in Washington.
After dropping two straight games to start the season, the Capitals came back to win their second straight, improving to 2-2-0 this season. Trailing entering the 3rd period, the Capitals rattled off 4 unanswered goals to pick up the comeback win to improve to a .500 record early in the season.
Capitals forward Dylan Strome said of the game that they "Gave them a few too many chances in the second, kind of let our foot off the gas. And then, there's a lot of veterans in here, talked about it, knew what we had to do in the third and found a way to come back."
It was Ovechkin who started the scoring for the Capitals, picking up a power play goal just 56 seconds into the game to make it 1-0 early, assisted by Strome and Marcus Johansson. With just 8 seconds left in the opening period, Elias Pettersson scored for the Canucks to tie things up 1-1 on his second goal of the year.
The second period saw another early strike, with Lars Eller scoring to put the Capitals ahead 2-1. Bo Horvat tied it up 2-2 when he scored 8:03 into the second, and Curtis Lazar gave the Canucks a 3-2 lead when he scored 11 seconds later. JT Miller scored on the power play later in the second to make it a 4-2 Canucks lead.
Early in the 3rd period, Strome scored a power play goal, cutting into the deficit to make it a 4-3 score. Carlson picked up a goal 8:43 into the period, tying the game 4-4 with assists from Ovechkin and Evgeny Kuznetsov. Conor Sheary scored to give the Capitals a 5-4 lead, and Ovechkin scored his second of the night to make it a 6-4 final score.
Capitals head coach Peter Laviolette said after the game that "I thought in the third period we straightened out and played a really good third period, maybe our best third period of the year and our best offensive period of the year. We were on the attack, and we were pushing the whole time."
Getting the start in net for the Capitals was newly signed Darcy Kuemper. He overcame a shaky second period to pick up the win, improving to 2-1-0 on the season. To do it, he stopped 26 out of the 30 shots on goal the Canucks sent at him, good for a .867 save percentage.
On the other side of the ice, Thatcher Demko was in goal for the Canucks. Demko picked up his 3rd loss of the year to fall to 0-3-0 this season, saving only 24 out of the 30 shots on goal the Capitals directed his way, recording a measly .800 save percentage.
Horvat, the Canucks captain, said after the game that "That's three games in a row now that we've had leads and outplayed teams and it's just unacceptable by us, it's unacceptable by myself and my leadership. I hold myself accountable, I've got to be better. Luckily, we play Tuesday night, so we've got to have a short-term memory and go out there and do it."
Up next, the Capitals don't play until a Thursday night road contest against the Ottawa Senators, with Kuemper likely to start in goal. The Canucks play the second half of a back to back on Tuesday against the Blue Jackets, with Spencer Martin making his season debut in goal.
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