Caps Win Fourth Straight, 4-2 Over Habs

One guy stayed hot, and another snapped a cold spell to lead the Caps to their fourth straight win on Monday night in Montreal. Jakub Vrana notched the game-winning goal for the second straight game while extending his point streak to nine straight games, and Braden Holtby made 31 saves to pick up his first win since Jan. 5 in a 4-2 victory over the Habs at Bell Centre.

The game was the first for both squads after the midseason break, so there was some expected sloppiness and some rust for both teams to shake off. Playing without captain Alex Ovechkin, who sat out a one-game NHL suspension for missing the All-Star Game, Washington won for the sixth time in eight games this month.
"Definitely a difficult building to win in," says Caps coach Todd Reirden, "and a little bit shorthanded without Alex tonight. But it was a good team win for us. I thought Braden was real strong, and we'll definitely take the two points and get on our way here."
Montreal jumped out to an early 1-0 lead, scoring on its second shot on net in the second minute of the contest. The Habs generated a 3-on-2 rush out of their own end, and they caught the Caps with a forward (T.J. Oshie) as one of the two guys back. Just as it appeared that puck carrier Tomas Tatar was out of options, Tatar found Jeff Petry all alone behind the defense, and Petry's backhander beat Braden Holtby at 1:55.
Playing without prolific power-play scorer Ovechkin, Washington's first power play opportunity of the night didn't produce as much as a shot on net. But the Caps got a second extra-man opportunity late in the first, and they cashed in to pull even.
John Carlson's stick exploded on a center point drive, so he went to the bench for a new one. Oshie pushed the puck up the wall and behind the Montreal net, as the Caps vied to retain possession until Carlson could get back to the blueline. Vrana collected it behind the cage, and he issued a neat backhand feed to the front for Tom Wilson. From the top of the paint, Wilson beat Carey Price to make it 1-1 at 18:30.

"I think he took a little bit too long getting it to me," jokes Wilson of Vrana's pass. "Price was on the other side of the net. I'm like, 'Let's go!' And then he got it to me, and I just snuck it through him."
Holtby's last second stop on Tatar from in tight kept the game even after 20 minutes of play, and Phillip Danault's hi-sticking minor at the horn enabled the Caps to start the second period with another power play. Although the Caps didn't score on this man advantage, they did so three seconds after it expired.
As Danault hopped back onto the ice, the Caps jammed the net for one last chance from point blank range. Travis Boyd tried to put a pass across the crease for Brendan Leipsic, but the puck glanced off a defender's skate blade and trickled over the line, putting the Caps up 2-1 at 2:03 of the second.
Montreal tilted the possession scale for much of the middle part of the middle frame, and the Habs had a couple of power play opportunities during that span, too. But Washington weathered that storm, and managed to tack another goal onto its lead in the back half of the frame.
Evgeny Kuznetsov got in on the forecheck and won a puck battle as he lost his footing, sweeping the puck to the front. Oshie neatly bumped it to Vrana, who put it behind Price on the short side for a 3-1 Caps advantage at 14:51 of the second.

"It was a great forecheck by both of my [linemates]," says Vrana. "Kuzy won the puck there, and Osh just tipped it for me. The line is clicking pretty good. We create chances all the time."
The Habs came out hard in the third, and Holtby made a stellar glove save just past the five-minute mark, sweeping a Joel Armia shot away just as it was about to cross the line. It was close enough that the video review crew took a look to make sure.
That stop loomed larger a couple of minutes later when Montreal's Dale Weise scored, getting behind the Washington defense and sliding a backhander around Holtby at 7:30. But the Caps goaltender walled the Habs off for the remainder of the evening, improving to 10-1-1 all-time at Bell Centre after Nicklas Backstrom's empty-netter in the final minute accounted for the 4-2 final count.
"I think it's good to get a break," says Holtby. "I feel like I had more energy, and could do things a little easier, so I think it's good for us all. It was one of those games you've got to battle through, and I think we won as a team. We didn't get just one big performance in order to get our collective unit in order to win that game, Those ones are tough, and it's good to come out on top."