Caps Bounce Back with 5-2 Win Over Avs

On Monday night in Brooklyn, the Caps turned in a subpar performance that resulted in a 3-1 loss and the end of a four-game Washington winning streak. A night later Washington took the ice against the Colorado Avalanche, a team that destroyed the Caps in Denver last month, 6-2.

Seeking a strong bounce-back effort on both of those counts, the Caps were successful. They downed the Avs by a 5-2 score on Tuesday night at Capital One Arena to earn their 12th win in their last 14 home games.

Evgeny Kuznetsov had three assists - including two primaries - and the Caps got goals from five different skaters in support of Braden Holtby's 22-save night in the Washington nets.

"I think you have a pretty prideful group that wants to respond," says Caps coach Barry Trotz of his team. "We didn't have maybe our best game [Monday] night, and these guys handed us our lunch last time. I think they wanted to have a good response. I think we had a good plan going in, and I thought it was a real good team win."

Washington's passing game was noticeably sharper in the early going of Tuesday's tilt, and some precision passing helped the Caps to a 1-0 lead early in the first.

Madison Bowey started the scoring play from in front of the Caps' net, sliding a short breakout pass to Evgeny Kuznetsov, who skated up the center lane on a three-on-two rush. After gaining the Colorado zone, Kuznetsov pushed the puck to Jakub Vrana on his left, and Vrana snapped a shot past Avs goalie Semyon Varlamov, beating him high on the short side at 5:25 of the first.

The Caps killed off a penalty to start the second, but the Avs evened the score shortly afterwards when Colin Wilson scored on a backhander from just above the top of the paint at 4:13 of the middle period, his second goal against the Caps this season.

While the game was even at 1-1 in the second, Holtby made his best stop of the night, thwarting Wilson's breakaway bid for a third goal against the Caps. Defenseman Dmitry Orlov also came up large defensively, sliding to block a Mikko Rantanen wraparound bid, and Orlov halted the rebound try, too.

Washington restored its lead late in the middle period. The Caps entered Colorado ice on a three-on-two that failed to produce a shot, but Colorado's clearing bid went right to John Carlson's tape. From just above the tops of the circles, Carlson stepped into a drive that eluded Varlamov on the glove side, putting the Caps up 2-1 at 17:42 of the second.

Colorado had a carryover power play to bridge the second and third periods, and the Avs put some offensive-zone heat on the Caps in the immediate aftermath of that extra-man opportunity. The Caps did not have a power play chance on this night, but they did score a critical goal with an extra attacker on the ice during a delayed penalty call.

From the right half wall, Bowey made a brilliant cross-ice feed to Brett Connolly, who got lost in coverage on the weak side. Bowey put in in Connolly's wheelhouse, and the latter pounded a shot past Varlamov to make it a 3-1 game at 5:15 of the third.

"He made a great play," says Connolly of Bowey. "He froze the goalie. I think originally he was going to shoot it. I was calling for it a little bit over there, and he made a great play. He froze the goalie, and I just had to get it in the upper half of the net. I was fortunate enough to put it where I wanted."

The Caps managed the game well thereafter, and they added to their lead with less than four minutes remaining. Andre Burakovsky shook down Avs defenseman Erik Johnson, taking the puck and leaving it for Kuznetsov. The slick center carried down low on the left side before dishing a lateral pass to Matt Niskanen in front. Niskanen buried it for his second goal in three games, extending the Caps' lead to 4-1 at 16:19.

Colorado's Tyson Jost scored with 1:03 remaining, and seconds later Devante Smith-Pelly fired a long distance shot into a vacated Colorado cage to account for the 5-2 final count.

Both teams were playing for the second time in as many nights on Tuesday, but the Caps seemed to have better legs over the full 60 minutes.

"We looked like we were dragging a little bit out there today," says Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar. "We had a decent start, I didn't mind our start. Some wind came out of our sails after they scored in the first, and [Colin] Wilson did a nice job of getting us back."

A night after they never led in a loss in Brooklyn, the Caps never trailed on Tuesday against the Avs. Washington has not trailed at any point in its last five home games.

"We were not as good as we hoped to be [Monday] night," says Niskanen, "and we got our butts kicked in Colorado, so a good response game for sure. [It was] a pretty solid effort from the guys tonight. Holts was good, we had good defense against their top line and we found some scoring."