In Washington, DC, Alex Ovechkin had two goals and four points for the Capitals on Monday in a 6-4 win over the Vancouver Canucks.
Ovechkin’s first goal came off the power play in the first period.
“Obviously, previous games pretty good chances,” Ovechkin said, “but even today you know first one was kind of luck, but in this situation you kind of take it and move on.”
Darcy Kuemper made 26 saves in the Caps win.
“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,” Washington coach Peter Laviolette said. “We were on the attack, and we were pushing the whole time.”
The Canucks held a 4-2 lead after the first two periods, but surrendered four unanswered goals in the third.
“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,” Vancouver captain Bo Horvat said. “I hold myself accountable, I’ve got to be better. Luckily, we play [Tuesday] night (at the Columbus Blue Jackets), so we’ve got to have a short-term memory and go out there and do it.”
Elias Pettersson scored in the first period for Vancouver; Horvat, Curtis Lazar and J.T. Miller scored for a 4-2 lead after two.
“I thought we had a great second period, and I think the game plan for the third period was fine,” Canucks head coach Bruce Boudreau said. “But it did look like we started to collapse and were afraid to win. They came at us pretty good, and we just didn’t handle it very well.”
Dylan Strome, Conor Sheary, Lars Eller, and John Carlson also scored for the Caps.
“Gave them a few too many chances in the second, kind of let our foot off the gas,” Strome said. “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.”
Thatcher Demko made 24 saves in the Canucks loss.
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