Game Recap – 1/27/2020 – Washington Capitals v. Montreal Canadiens

Washington Capitals (33-11-5 71pts) v. Montreal Canadiens (22-21-7 51pts)

 

Game Recap:

Coming back from the Bye Week and All Star break the Washington Capitals kick start their road to the playoffs on the road against the Montreal Canadiens, and the Capitals would do so without captain Alex Ovechkin who would need to serve a one game suspension for skipping the All Star festivities. In the first period Tomas Tatar would charge into the Capitals zone and find defenseman Jeff Petry streaking through the slot and slide the puck past Braden Holtby to give the Canadiens the 1-0 lead less than two minutes into the game. Both the Capitals and Canadiens would trade powerplay opportunities, but both teams penalty kills would shut things down. However, on a late powerplay opportunity for the Capitals, Jakub Vrana would find Tom Wilson from behind the net to give Wilson his 15th of the season to tie the game at one.

 

In the second period the Capitals would start with a full two minute powerplay thanks to a Phillip Danault high stick to Garnet Hathaway to end the first period, and with this opportunity the Capitals would not strike, but would generate great zone time that would lead to a Travis Boyd marker three seconds after the powerplay ended when Petry would accidently knock it into his own net as the Capitals take the 2-1 lead. Then later in the period Jakub Vrana would strike off of a great forecheck by Evgeny Kuznetsov to grow the Capitals lead to two.

 

Then in the third period Dale Weise would score in his 500th career NHL game for his first of the season for the Canadiens, Nicklas Backstrom would get the empty net goal with 23 seconds left in the game to give the Capitals the 4-2 victory.

 

Lineups:

Washington Capitals:

Richard Panik — Nicklas Backstrom — Tom Wilson

Jakub Vrana — Evgeny Kuznetsov — T.J. Oshie

Carl Hagelin — Lars Eller — Travis Boyd

Brendan Leipsic — Nic Dowd — Garnet Hathaway

Michal Kempny — John Carlson

Dmitry Orlov — Nick Jensen

Jonas Siegenthaler — Radko Gudas

Braden Holtby

Ilya Samsonov

Scratched: None

Injured: None

Suspended: Alex Ovechkin

 

Montreal Canadiens:

Tomas Tatar — Phillip Danault — Ilya Kovalchuk

Max Domi — Nick Suzuki — Joel Armia

Ryan Poehling — Jesperi Kotkaniemi — Artturi Lehkonen

Nick Cousins– Nate Thompson — Dale Weise

Ben Chiarot — Shea Weber

Brett Kulak — Jeff Petry

Victor Mete — Cale Fleury

Carey Price

Charlie Lindgren

Scratched: Jordan Weal

Injured: Brendan Gallagher (upper body), Paul Byron (upper body), Jonathan Drouin (wrist), Marco Scandella (lower body)

 

First Period:

MON Goal – 1:55 – Jeff Petry (7) from Tomas Tatar (27) and Marco Scandella (7)

MON Penalty – 3:29 – Victor Mete 2 minutes for Holding

WAS Penalty – 6:40 – Nicklas Backstrom 2 minutes for Hooking

MON Penalty – 17:28 – Max Domi 2 minutes for Slashing

WAS PPG – 18:30 – Tom Wilson (15) from Jakub Vrana (19) and TJ Oshie (17)

MON Penalty – 20:00 – Phillip Danault 2 minutes for High Sticking

 

End of 1st

 

Second Period:

WAS Goal – 2:03 – Travis Boyd (3) from Lars Eller (17) and Brendan Leipsic (8)

WAS Penalty – 3:10 – Tom Wilson 2 minutes for Roughing

WAS Penalty – 6:42 – TJ Oshie 2 minutes for Tripping

WAS Goal – 14:51 – Jakub Vrana (23) from TJ Oshie (18) and Evgeny Kuznetsov (28)

 

End of 2nd

 

Third Period:

MON Goal – 7:30 – Dale Weise (1) from Nick Suzuki (19)

WAS ENG – 19:37 – Nicklas Backstrom (10) from Carl Hagelin (9) and Tom Wilson (20)

 

End of 3rd

 

Next Up:

Washington (34-11-5 73pts) v. Nashville (22-18-7 51pts)

Montreal (22-22-7 51pts) @ Buffalo (22-20-7 51pts)