Canadiens are no match for high-flying capitals in Washington

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The Canadiens’ hopes of a winning streak, even a modest two-game, were dashed Wednesday night when they began a three-game road trip with a 6-3 loss to the Washington Capitals at Capital One Arena.

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The Canadiens couldn’t have gotten off to a worse start as the Capitals scored on their first two shots on goal and led 3-0 before Jake Evans scored for Montreal late in the first period.

Montreal managed just one shot on a power play early in the period and the Capitals came back to take the lead when Nic Dowd beat Jake Allen with a strong second effort. Dowd circled Jeff Petry in a run down the left wing and Allen did a good job sealing the post. But Dowd picked up his own rebound, went behind the net and scored at a rodeo.

The Capitals made it 2-0 with a power play goal 9: 13. Joel Armia did an excellent job following Alexander Ovechkin, but Evgeny Kuznetsov had too much time on the right side and set John Carlson up with a single stopwatch from the blue line.

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Washington got the rebound, rebounds actually, when Michael Sgarbossa was credited with his first goal of the season. Cédric Paquette’s punt attempt hit Sgarbossa’s body and headed for the goal. Allen could have saved, but Alexander Romanov tried to play the puck into the box and deflected it into the net.

Brendan Gallagher did the heavy lifting on the corner to Evans for his goal at 6:46 pm. The 3-1 scoreline flattered the Canadiens, who were outshot 16-5 and won just 24 percent of their first-quarter meetings.

The second period was a bit better for the visitors, as they exchanged goals, with Cole Caufield scoring his first goal since last season’s playoffs at 18:54. Ilya Samsonov got his arm on Caufield’s shot out of the run, but the puck came out on the far side of the boards and Caufield had another chance. Samsonov put his pad on the shot, but a review showed the puck crossed the goal line.

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Early in the period, the Canadiens only had one shot on goal on their second power play and, less than a minute later, Kuznetsov was at the back door to make a Carlson pass from the right spot.

Ovechkin failed to score a goal, but collected his third assist of the night as he set up Tom Wilson on a 2v1 break early in the third period. Defender Dmitry Orlov scored Washington’s final goal at 5:57. Montreal produced another goal late in the period when Gallagher set up Artturi Lehkonen with 2:26 left in the game.

After using seven defenders in Saturday’s win over Nashville, Dominique Ducharme reverted to a more conventional configuration of six defenders and 12 forwards. Sami Niku returned to the lineup for the first time since November 2 and was used in the third pair. Brett Kulak did not make the trip due to a lower body injury and Mattias Norlinder was a healthy scratch

There was also a change up front, as Paquette returned to the lineup after missing six games with an undisclosed injury. He replaced Michael Pezzetta on the fourth line with Ryan Poehling and Joel Armia.

The Canadiens’ road trip continues with back-to-back games in Buffalo on Friday and Pittsburgh on Saturday.

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