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Washington returned to the Bell Centre where the specter of their contest against the Canadiens in which they surrounded a late lead to the Habs under three weeks ago loomed large. Washington looked to close out their road trip with a victory, and while they needed some free hockey to accomplish their goal, Lars Eller played the hero in overtime to give the Captitals a 5-4 lead.
Here’s Mondays night’s Plus/Minus:
Plus: Tom Wilson has now tallied one goal and five assists in the four games since returning to action following his extended suspension to begin the season.
Minus: The Canadiens chased Pheonix Copley moments into the second period after a one-goal lead turned into a two-goal deficit, and they called upon Braden Holtby into action in his first game active following injury.
And now this…
After feeling each other out for the first ten minutes, the Canadiens tilted the ice and struck first with some fancy stick-handling and a nice individual effort by Mike Reilly for his second goal of the season to sneak the puck between Copley and his right post.
The third line responded to even the score with a hair under seven minutes left in the opening stanza. Washington capitalized off a bad change by Montreal, Brett Connolly recorded his third goal of the season and the 60th of his career on a ricochet off the back boards to elude a sprawling Carey Price.
A little over a minute later, the recently liberated Tom “#FreeWilly” Wilson found Alex Ovechkin on the doorstep, threading a slap pass through three Canadiens who tapped it in on the doorstep to give the Capitals the 2-1 advantage.
Despite being in front on the scoreboard, the Caps spent the majority of the first period in their own zone and were outshot by a 17-8 margin.
Just twenty seconds into the second, Brendan Gallagher evened the score with his tenth goal of the season to squirt past Copley to tie the score at two apiece. Madison Bowey got tagged seconds later for interference as he tried unsuccessfully to prevent an odd-man rush and Jeff Petry scored his second goal of the season just 48 seconds later to give the Canadiens the one-goal lead.
The Habs were not done just yet: a deflection by Agostino on the very next shot 28 seconds later beat Copley once again, and his night was over as he yielded to Braden Holtby. When the dust cleared, the Capitals one-goal lead had turned into a two-goal deficit in the span of 95 seconds, and Washington trailed 4-2.
Lars Eller was guilty of a high stick on Gallagher, resulting in the second double minor penalty of the game as the winger drew blood though they successfully killed off the extended penalty kill.
Nicklas Backstrom got the Capitals back on the board to cut the deficit to one with a little over six and a half minutes remaining in the middle frame, and picked up his tenth point in the last nine games including four goals over that stretch.
After being totally outclassed in the opening moments of the period, the Capitals showed signs of improvement as the period progressed, namely after Holtby was called into duty, though they still trailed in shots 34-19 at the start of the third period.
With nineteen seconds remaining in the man-advantage, Jordie Benn was tagged for a two-minute tripping minor and the Capitals did what they do best on the 5-on-3, Tom Wilson clicked it to John Carlson who found Alex Ovechkin at home in his office, where he slapped the puck home, tying the game at four apiece.
With the tally, Ovechkin tied with Mario Lemieux (236) for seventh place on the NHL’s all-time power play goal list and drew within four goals of passing Joe Sakic and Jarome Iginla (625) for 15th on the NHL’s all-time goals list.
Perhaps recognizing his team needed a boost, Reirden opted to swap lines in the third period with the game tied:
The new line-mates paid off as the Capitals clamped down and trimmed the shot deficit while simultaneously fighting off a bevy of chances by the Canadiens in the final minute of regulation time, though the game would require overtime to settle the game.
Not to be outdone by Carey Price’s acrobatics in regulation, Braden Holtby made a splendid save on Gallagher midway through the extra stanza on what would have ended the game on a lesser net-minder.
After being called to win a faceoff, Lars Eller drew the boo-birds from his former home fans who he sent home unhappy, after he collected a criss cross pass from Jacob Vrana and buried it past Price to silence the Bell Centre crowd and to finish off the comeback with a 5-4 final.
Ten more notes on the game:
10. After what appeared to be a narrative-confirming collapse, reminiscent of their last contest of the Canadiens, Washington came to life in the second half of the contest enough to earn them the road victory. Though the Capitals recorded ten fewer shots than the Habs (44 to 34), they dug themselves out of a deficit that at one point was as many as minus-20 attempts on net. Washington finished their week-long road trip with a 3-1 record and return for some home cooking with two games on either side of the Thanksgiving (US!) holiday