Caps Smother Flames, 3-1

What a difference a couple of days has made for the Washington Capitals. The Caps went into Saturday's game in Vancouver on a rare two-game losing slide and with four newly cobbled forward lines. After taking down the Canucks by a 5-2 count, the Caps headed to Alberta on Sunday to finish off their first set of back-to-back games this season. In Calgary, the Caps finished the Flames 3-1.

Calgary native Jay Beagle set up Washington's first and last goals, Marcus Johansson netted a pair for the second time in as many nights, and Braden Holtby made 21 saves to earn the win. In salting away their fifth win of the season, the Capitals once again turned in a stalwart defensive performance and locked the lead down tight late in the game.

Just like that, the Caps have won two straight games in which they have not trailed at any point.

For the second time in as many games and nights, the Caps got off to a strong start and took a two-goal lead in the first frame. Washington's fourth line delivered the game's first goal on its first shift of the night.

Zach Sanford and Jay Beagle combined to win a puck battle behind the Calgary net, and Beagle carried around to the side and sent a perfect backhand feed to the slot for Brett Connolly, who quickly buried it for his first goal as a member of the Capitals.

Sanford picked up an assist on the play to earn his first career NHL point, and Connolly's goal staked the Caps to a 1-0 lead at 2:01 of the first.

"For the three games that I've played this year, I've had at least two or three or four shots on net and some good chances," says Connolly. "So I knew it was going to come, and Beags made a good play on the goal.
"I was in a good spot to shoot it. I'd like to think if I get shots from there, I'll score a little bit. It was a good play by Beags and it was nice to get that first one out of the way."

Flames defenseman Deryk Engelland hi-sticked Tom Wilson to put the Caps on the power play at 6:39 of the first, and the Caps struck on the power play to double their advantage.

Nicklas Backstrom retrieved the puck after a John Carlson center point shot missed the mark. Backstrom then threaded a perfect cross-ice feed to Alex Ovechkin, who immediately sent the puck toward the back door, where Marcus Johansson was camped. Johansson neatly deflected it behind Elliott for a 2-0 Caps advantage at 7:14 of the first.

"Great pass by Ovi," says Johansson. "He hit me right on the tape and I just had to put my stick there. Those are nice, and I'm happy to take those."

Six and a half minutes later, the Flames cut into the Washington lead with a tainted goal. Caps defenseman Nate Schmidt had the puck hop over his stick near the Washington line, and he readied himself to defend against Mikael Backlund, who gained possession and carried down the right side. Flames forward Matthew Tkachuk engaged with Schmidt and took him down to the ice, opening up more of a shooting lane for Backlund. The Calgary center fired a shot that beat Caps goaltender Braden Holtby to the far side, as Schmidt protested to no avail. The officials were oblivious to the obvious interference call, and suddenly it was a 2-1 game at 13:44 of the first.

Neither side scored in the second, and Washington was forced to kill off a couple of Calgary power plays in order to maintain its one-goal advantage.

The Flames pushed harder in the third, and Calgary may have had more zone time in the third than in either of the first two periods, but the Capitals locked down the middle of the ice and didn't give the Flames much in the way of good scoring chances from prime areas.

Perhaps the Flames' best chance to pull even came just ahead of the midpoint of the final period when Holtby couldn't quite corral a T.J. Brodie wrist shot. Backlund quickly pounced on the rebound and fired from the slot, but Holtby clutched it with 11:11 remaining in the period.

Over the remainder of the game, Calgary could manage only two shots on net and both of them came from the point. Trailing by a goal for the entire third period. The Flames were held without a shot on net between Engelland's point shot with 11:09 remaining and Brodie's shot with 43 seconds remaining, a total span of 10:26 without a shot on net late in a one-goal game.

Washington closed down shooting and passing lanes effectively for those 10 plus minutes, blocking one Calgary shot try and watching as two others missed the mark.

The Capitals are now 71-1-6 when leading a game with 10 minutes left in the third period since Trotz took the coaching reins at the start of the 2014-15 season. Locking down late leads seems to be virtually rote for the Capitals.

"It definitely is," says Holtby, "especially when we get a lead in the third period. Most of the stuff [the Flames] got on net was from the outside. Every time they tried to throw it in front - there were some good plays from behind the net and in front - our [defensemen] and forwards were collapsing down and taking sticks away. They never got an opportunity to get one of those quick shots off, and that's huge."

In the game's final minute, Beagle fed Johansson for an empty-netter. The goal was Johansson's fourth in two games, and it sealed Washington's second win in a span of about 24 hours.

The Caps have also gone from scoring three goals in two games to surrendering only three goals in their last two games.

"We've had that ability the last probably two years where we don't shy away from those tight games," says Trotz. "We just try to play it the right way. We need a save here or there, and Holts and [Philipp Grubauer] give us that. I think we just manage the game better than we did a few years back."
October Over - With Sunday's 3-1 win over the Calgary Flames in the books, so is the October portion of the Capitals' 2016-17 schedule and roughly the first 10 percent of the season. Believe it or not, there are no NHL games scheduled for Monday, so the book is now closed on the entire circuit for the season's first month.

Washington sits with a 5-2-1 record at this early juncture. The Capitals own a .688 points pct., which is fifth best in the league and third in the Eastern Conference behind Montreal (.944) and Pittsburgh (.722).

As far as the ingredients that go into that points pct., the Caps are starting to trend upward in most areas.

Washington finishes October with an average of 2.75 goals per game, putting it right in the middle of the NHL pack at 15th in the league. The Capitals have been prolific at putting pucks on net; their rate of 33.1 shots on goal per game is second in the league only to Toronto's 34.7. With six tip-in (deflection) goals in eight games, the Caps are tied for the league lead.

With goals in consecutive games for the first time in 2016-17, the Caps' power play has nudged its way up to 17.4% on the season, ranking 18th in the circuit at the end of October.

The Capitals' penalty-killing outfit has climbed up to 78.3% on the season, ranking 21st in the league in that department. With a 50.8% success rate in the face-off circle, the Caps are 10th in the league.

Through eight games, the Caps are third from the bottom in minor penalties taken per 60 minutes, but they're also third from the bottom in minor penalties drawn per 60 minutes. Given their 16-10 goal differential at five-on-five, the Caps are comfortable playing games without a lot of special teams activity.

Where Washington really shines is in its own end of the ice. The Caps are allowing an average of exactly 25 shots per game, which is tops in the league. Washington has allowed two goals per game, tied for second in the league behind only Montreal (1.44). Washington has yet to allow more than 30 shots on net in any game this season, and the team that managed to reach 30 against the Caps (Pittsburgh, on opening night) needed overtime in order to do it.

There's a long way to go, but so far so good.

Hometown Cooking -Caps center Jay Beagle set up Washington's first and last goals in Sunday's game, doing so in front of the home folks. Beagle hails from Calgary, though he didn't root for the Flames growing up. He was a Red Wings fan whose favorite player was Steve Yzerman.

"It's always fun to play against the team that you grew up watching," says Beagle. "The Flames weren't the team I rooted for growing up, but my dad would take me to a game a year at the Saddledome, so it's always fun to play at the Saddledome, a place where you have memories as a kid. And it's always fun to play in front of family and friends."

With a neat backhand dish that Yzerman himself would have been proud up, Beagle set up Brett Connolly's first goal as a Capital, giving Washington an early 1-0 lead at 2:01 of the first. The Caps pivot also set up Marcus Johansson's empty-netter in the game's final minute.

Beagle now has three assists in his three career games at Saddledome.

Doubling Down - Johansson netted a pair of goals on Sunday night against the Flames, doing so for the second consecutive night. Johansson's Sunday night performance is the fifth two-goal effort for Washington in the team's first eight games.

Andre Burakovsky, Daniel Winnik and T.J. Oshie each had two-goal games in the Caps' first three games of the season.

Ten Thirty - Sunday night's game marked the fifth time the Capitals have played a game in Calgary on Oct. 30th. Washington is 4-0-1 in those games, and the "one" in the final column is a tie, not a shootout/overtime loss.

Back on Oct. 30, 1998, Washington's Rick Tabaracci (20 saves) and Calgary's Ken Wreggett (27 saves) dueled to a 0-0 tie, the first of only two such scoreless deadlocks in Caps franchise history.

That one sure sounds like it was worth staying up late for back east, eh?

Special Delivery -For the second time in as many games and the third time in eight games this season, the Caps scored at least one power play goal and were perfect on the penalty kill in Sunday's game.

Marcus Johansson scored his second power-play goal in as many nights against the Flames on Sunday, and the Caps killed both Calgary power plays without blemish.

Not surprisingly, the Caps are 3-0 in such games this season.

"As long as we're winning and getting the power play going," says Johansson, "I think that's huge for us. It was a big factor last year and that's a good feeling."

Back-To-Back -The Capitals were 22-7-1 in back-to-back games last season, including a 9-5-1 mark in the second half of those games. With Sunday's win over the Flames, the Capitals have swept their first set of back-to-back games in 2016-17.

Last season, the Caps swept two of the three sets of back-to-backs in which both games were on the road, as was the case this past weekend.

"I think we had a good mindset," says Caps goalie Braden Holtby. "If we got them moving a lot in their own zone, we'd have some success. And if you have flow to your game, it's a lot easier on back-to-backs. It looks like you're working hard, but it's a lot harder to do stops and starts in your [defensive] zone and stuff like that. So we had a lot of energy from executing - in the offensive zone especially - and wearing them down."

Down On The Farm -The AHL Hershey Bears finished up a set of weekend home games on Sunday afternoon against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. The Bears skated off with a 3-2 win, their second victory in as many nights.

For the second straight game, the Bears spotted their opponent a 1-0 first-period lead. Hershey pulled even at 1-1 on Brad Malone's third goal of the season late in the first period, Madison Bowey and Riley Barber assisting.

The Bears forged a 2-1 lead on Jakub Vrana's fifth goal of the season at 5:29 of the second period, with Travis Boyd collecting the only assist.

Just over four minutes after Vrana's goal, the Phantoms squared the game at 2-2. Hershey regained the lead at 19:43 of the second period, getting a Paul Carey power-play goal with help from Jakub Vrana and Chris Bourque.

Down 3-2 heading into the third period, the Phantoms managed only seven shots on net and Hershey goaltender Vitek Vanecek stopped them all. Vanecek stopped 22 of the 24 shots he faced in the game to earn his first victory of the season (1-1-1).

The Bears are now 3-2-2 on the season. They'll be back in action again on Friday when they visit Springfield.

By The Numbers - John Carlson led the Caps with 23:47 in ice time … Matt Niskanen, Alex Ovechkin, Dmitry Orlov and Justin Williams led the Capitals with three shots on net each while Carlson and Williams led the team with six shot attempts each … Orlov led the Caps with three blocked shots … Nicklas Backstrom won nine of 14 face-offs (64%).