Caps 4, Canadiens 2
Nice way to start a difficult road trip with a win at Bell Centre, where Montreal has been particularly tough to beat this season. Marcus Johansson scored two goals for the second time in his rookie season and Braden Holtby settled in after a shaky start to the game. He finished with 24 saves. Brooks Laich and Mike Knuble also scored for the Caps, who remained one point behind Philadelphia for the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference and are now five points ahead of Tampa Bay for the Southeast Division lead.
That’s good because Washington’s players are dropping like flies. The team told us early in the day that veteran center Jason Arnott is week-to-week with an undisclosed injury. During the game Eric Fehr was apparently injured, too. He’s already missed 22 games with a bum shoulder. No word on what happened tonight – though he took a couple of hard falls while battling for position in front of the Montreal goal. Fehr skated just one shift in the second period.
Nicklas Backstrom didn’t play, but he’s had his cast removed from his fractured left thumb and could be a game-time decision in Detroit on Wednesday night. Semyon Varlamov is still likely a week away from returning, coach Bruce Boudreau told reporters in Montreal earlier in the day. Look for Michal Neuvirth to get his first start since the March 7 game at Tampa Bay.
Holtby finished with 24 saves – every last one of them after getting burned while trying to play the puck out of his own zone by Canadiens forward Travis Moen. That came just 86 seconds into the game, but 20 seconds after Johansson banged home a lucky bounce off the boards following a Dennis Wideman dump-in. Holtby also recorded Washington’s first assist by a goalie this season. The rookie gave up a healthy heaping of rebounds early, but eventually relaxed.
Johansson’s stats may not look overwhelming (11 goals, 13 assists). He’s not really mentioned in the Calder Trophy race at all. But we’re talking about a 20-year-old who in the middle of a playoff race and has basically taken over as the team’s No. 1 center thanks to Backstrom’s injury. Johansson has a point in five of his last six games with two goals and four assists. He skates like a demon, creating dangerous chances even if he doesn’t always finish them. And he’s been responsible in his own end more often than not. Cant ask for much more than that.
Laich registered his 16th goal of the season thanks in part to a wonderful cross-ice pass from defenseman Karl Alzner. That was career goal No. 100 for Laich – some nice symmetry considering his first goal came at Bell Centre, too. Drove the net hard and made a sweet move to beat Carey Price.
Washington had a pretty good special teams night. Got lucky with the Johansson power-play goal, obviously, and Knuble’s tally came just after Marco Sturm exited the penalty box for another brief power play. And the Caps killed off all three Montreal penalties – though, again, it didn’t hurt that Lars Eller short-circuited the Canadiens’ late man-advantage chance with an interference penalty. Might want to cash in that long 5-on-3 late in the first period, though.
So make it nine wins in a row, 12 of 14 overall and six consecutive on the road to tie a franchise record. Also takes a lot of the pressure off a back-to-back at Detroit on Wednesday night.
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