Caps double up Montreal

In Montreal, the visiting Washington Capitals extended their current win streak to four games with a 4–2 win over the Canadiens on Monday night.

Braden Holtby made 31 saves to get the win.

Jakub Vrana had a goal and assist for Capitals – file photo by Lewis Bleiman

Jakub Vrana picked up a goal and two points in the win.

“He (Holtby) was great today,” Vrana said. “He made some huge saves and shut it down back there.”

Jeff Petry and Dale Weise scored for the Habs.

“I think we started the game out well,” Petry said. “We were skating, we were moving the puck well, we were playing a simple game and I think towards the end of the first we were trying to force things, got a little sloppy. The second period was really sloppy, (Price) bailed us out several times.

“Was it a bad bounce? Sure. Should I have been sitting in the crease? You know, probably not. But I don’t think the second period is the way the way we can play. We have to have consistent 60-minute games like we came out and ended to start that first period.”

Tom Wilson and Travis Boyd  also scored for the Caps.

“Every loss hurts but at this point these are all big games this whole week,” Petry said “And moving forward from there we have to get on a run here if we want to be in the playoffs, and I think every guy in here wants to accomplish that. But we have to have the right effort the majority of the time and we can’t have those lapses like we did in the second (period) there.”

Nicklas Backstrom added an empty net goal for the sealer.

“You can take some positives out of our third period but it’s not a complete effort from us,” Weise said. “I don’t know how happy we can be about that. You know, [Price] had to bail us out quite a bit tonight. We got off to a good start, and then kind of lulled, and then we put a push on in the third, which is just since I’ve been here, it’s kind of been the norm for our team.”

[WATCH: All Capitals vs. Canadiens highlights]

Carey Price made 36 saves in the loss.

“I don’t think they got an edge on us,” the Canadiens’ Ilya Kovalchuk said. “The second period was sloppy by us, I think the first and third we played really well. But that’s not enough.”