Caps Double Up Avs, 6-3

Evgeny Kuznetsov continued his hot start to the season, scoring twice and adding an assist to help the Caps to a convincing 6-3 win over the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday night at Capital One Arena. The victory enables the Capitals to come away with five of a possible six points on their season-opening three-game homestand.

With Nicklas Backstrom (hip) sidelined for at least the first 10 games of the season, Kuznetsov's torrid start has helped ease the loss of their longtime cornerstone pivot. He has recorded two goals and six points while averaging just over 20 minutes a night in the season's first three games.
"It's just three games," says Kuznetsov. "Of course I'm happy with the way we played and happy with the personal performance, but at the end of the day, it's still two points. It doesn't matter how many points I'm going to get if we're not going to make the playoffs and we're not going to be successful there, it's still going to be a bad year. That's why it's very important to have a great team game."
Washington had that great team game right from the opening puck drop, rolling out to a strong start in Tuesday's homestand finale. The Caps were in the offensive zone a lot early, and they were bringing pucks to the net and getting some good looks from in tight. Each of the Caps' first seven shots on net came from inside of 30 feet away, and the seventh one found the back of the net.
After leaving the puck for John Carlson in Washington ice, Kuznetsov went straight up the middle of the ice, accepting a stretch pass from Carlson near the Colorado line. Finding some loose coverage, Kuznetsov successful split a trio of Avs defenders and beat Darcy Kuemper from below the hash marks, giving the Caps a 1-0 lead at 6:15 of the first.

The Caps kept the heat on, and when Connor McMichael drew a tripping call on Colorado defenseman Sanuel Girard early in the back half of the first, they had a chance to pad their lead on the power play. But instead, a Kuznetsov turnover in neutral ice resulted in a J.T. Compher shorthanded goal at 13:46. Despite their domination, the Caps found themselves all even at 1-1 with the Avs.
Late in the period, the Caps created offense from defense. A multi-player scrum took place in the corner of Washington ice, and when the puck popped out, Tom Wilson bumped it to Nick Jensen, creating a 3-on-1 with Jensen driving the right side, partner Dmitry Orlov in the middle and Alex Ovechkin on the left. Jensen and Orlov worked a give-and-go just inside the Colorado line, and Jensen buried the return from the right circle at 16:53, restoring the Caps' one-goal lead at 2-1.
"You work on a lot of things in practice," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "I thought Jens' goal was something we had been working on from a defensive standpoint, about taking guys down; we're stopping them in an area - in a quadrant - and battling and winning the battles. From there, it was a sprint to offense. We were able to catch a puck on the breakout and poke it past and have not one defenseman [on the rush] but two defensemen."
Washington killed off a late Colorado power play and went to the room with that one-goal lead and a whopping 19-5 advantage in shots on net. Colorado had no shots on net after the Compher goal, a span of 6 minutes and 14 seconds.
Early in the middle period, the Avs pulled even again, getting the Caps running around and chasing the puck in their own end. Logan O'Connor carried around the perimeter of the zone, lugging the puck behind the net and up the right half wall before curling to a halt. Meanwhile, Darren Helm got lost on the weak side. O'Connor fed him perfectly, and Helm beat Ilya Samsonov for his first goal as a member of the Avalanche after 14 seasons in Detroit.
Helm's goal came at 3:12, and despite being outshot 20-7 at that juncture, the Avs were all even. Washington killed off an Avs power play minutes later to maintain the status quo on the scoreboard, and Samsonov made one of his best stops of the night just after the midpoint of the middle frame, stepping out to assertively deny O'Connor's bid from just above the paint.
The Caps held the Avs without a shot on net for the rest of the second period, a span of 9:47. When ex-Caps winger Andre Burakovsky turned the puck over in his own end, Lars Eller quickly put it toward the net for Anthony Mantha, who caught it in his skates before scoring from the top of the paint at 14:47 of the second. Mantha's 100th career goal gave Washington its third one-goal lead of the game.

Just under two minutes later, the Caps turned in a dominant offensive-zone shift, running the Avs around their end for nearly a full minute before Kuznetsov took a feed from Wilson and ripped a shot to the far side from the right circle, giving the Caps a two-goal lead at 16:41, an advantage they would carry into the third.
On the first shift of the third period, the Nic Dowd line put together a strong offensive zone shift that culminated in another insurance goal. Kuemper stopped Jensen's drive from the point, but the rebound came right to Dowd, stationed several feet off the left post and down near the goal line. From there, the right-handed Dowd scored on a tough angle shot to make it a 5-2 game just 39 seconds into the third.
The Caps kept buzzing the Colorado end and creating, but the final two goals came way late in the third. Colorado made it 5-3 with 3:06 left when Mikko Rantanen scored on a 6-on-4 power play with Kuemper off for an extra attacker. At 17:39 of the third, Alex Ovechkin accounted for the 6-3 final by dialing long distance into the vacated Colorado cage. Ovechkin scored from about 140 feet away after Kuznetsov won a defensive zone draw and slid the puck to the Caps' captain.

Samsonov made some strong stops late in the game, finishing with 24 saves and his first victory of the season.
"I thought we got outcompeted in a lot of areas," says Colorado coach Jared Bednar. "We gave up way too much. We were - I would say - cheating or gambling for offense instead of working the right way to create it, and they went the other way on us.
"I just thought they were the faster, bigger, stronger, hungrier team tonight from start to finish."
The Caps were able to finish off their early homestand with a flourish, dominating the Avs in possession and territory and scoring five times at 5-on-5. Washington also came up big in the aftermath of the first two Colorado goals, never letting the Avs grab a lead.
"They're a team that's extremely dynamic," says Wilson. "They want to play offense, so if you can keep them in their own end it definitely helps. Our line was able to get a couple on them early, and then guys can get frustrated and you want to stay on top of them so when they do get that momentum and they score a goal, you make sure you try and take it away as quick as you can.
"We did a good job answering back to kill their drive after their positive energy happened. Against good players like that that are some of the best in the league, it's important to stay on them when you can."