Habs Halt Caps' Streak at Six

Seeking to extend their winning streak to seven straight on Saturday night against the Montreal Canadiens, the Capitals did a lot of good things in terms of possession and territory. But they didn't get enough bang for their buck, dropping a tight 2-1 decision to the Habs at Verizon Center.

In a battle of the last two Vezina Trophy winners, the Caps ultimately didn't do enough to make life difficult for Montreal goaltender Carey Price, who was pulled early from Friday night's home ice start against San Jose after yielding four goals on 18 shots.

"They were defending pretty well," says Caps coach Barry Trotz, of the Habs. "And you've got maybe the best goaltender in the National Hockey League in Price. He's been outstanding, and you knew he was going to be motivated [after Friday night's game]. We didn't make it hard enough I thought, on Carey.

"Even in the third, they had a pretty good defensive posture and we were still looking for that extra play. We didn't put enough shots on him, and we didn't make it hard enough on him. But I don't want to take anything from Montreal. They were a pretty determined group. I think they wanted to respond for Carey."

Montreal held the Caps to just 21 shots on goal in the game and only five in the third period. For a span of 15 minutes and 22 seconds over the waning portion of the middle period and lion's share of the third, Washington was held without a shot on goal altogether.

"We played extremely hard on the defensive side of the puck," says Price of his teammates. "It's a very skilled offensive team and I thought we did a really good job of containing their offense."

Washington had a handful of odd-man rush opportunities during Saturday's game, but the Caps rarely seemed to threaten - or even get a shot on net - during those chances. They also had some lengthy and grinding offensive zone shifts early in the first, but those produced more erosion of the opposition - presumably - than prime scoring chances.

For the third straight games, the Caps fell into a 1-0 hole in the game's first 20 minutes. Coming out of the third television timeout of the first frame, Montreal's Tomas Plekanec beat Washington's Nicklas Backstorm on a left dot draw in the Washington end. Canadiens winger Artturi Lehkonen pulled the puck out of the left wing corner and wrapped it around the opposite side, tucking it through the legs of Caps goalie Braden Holtby to put the Habs up 1-0 with 5:18 left in the first.

"You see that play happen a lot where that backhand or pass option is in front where you have to be patient on it," says Holtby. "Obviously, looking at what [Lehkonen] did in the third, it's a tendency of his to go to his forehand there, and quick. I haven't seen someone wrap the puck that quick in a long time, or ever.

"It's one where I just thought I would be able to take a look and get there, but he was on me before I could even move. People are coming up with new things every day. You've just got to adjust to them."

Washington benefited from a trio of power plays in the middle frame, and two of those infractions overlapped to the point where the Capitals were looking 88 seconds worth of two-man advantage time after Alexei Emelin was sent off for interference at 14:07.

Nine seconds later, the Caps pulled even. After Plekanec beat T.J. Oshie on the right dot draw in Montreal's end, John Carlson hugged the wall to prevent the Canadiens' clearing attempt from exiting the zone. Carlson quickly went to Alex Ovechkin high on the left side. Ovechkin went down low on the same side to Justin Williams, who sent a perfect cross-ice saucer feed to Nicklas Backstrom at the back door post. All Backstrom had to do was get the shot on net, which he did, tying the game at 14:16.

The Caps still had 111 seconds worth of power play time with which to work, but they were unable to make good on that one.

Roughly half a minute after killing off the Emelin minor, the Canadiens regained their lead. Habs captain Max Pacioretty entered the Washington zone on the left side in a three-on-four situation. Pacioretty carried down to the left dot and then fired a pass across to Jeff Petry, who was the lone man on that side of the ice. Petry chipped it home on a timing play to restore the Montreal lead, 2-1 at 16:39.

From that point on, the Caps still had more than 23 minutes with which to muster a reply. But Washington went without a shot on net between Ovechkin's shot from 46 feet away with 2:27 left in the second until Evegeny Kuznetsov put a shot on Price from 35 feet with 7:05 left in the game.

"They had a lot of urgency in their game," says ex-Habs center Lars Eller. "They battled hard. We had the puck a lot and we had a lot of [offensive] zone time, but failed to get bodies inside and get the puck inside at the same time.

"Maybe it was too easy a night for Price. We didn't get shots and didn't get secondaries. We just failed to get our nose dirty and get the puck in there. That was the step we were missing today."