Legends Lead Caps to 6-2 Win over Wings

For the last decade plus, Caps fans have had the sublime pleasure of watching future Hockey Hall of Famers Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom ply their trades here in Washington. On Tuesday night, those in attendance witnessed a top performance from both players in a 6-2 win over the Detroit Red Wings at Capital One Arena.

Ovechkin recorded his first hat trick of the season and the 21st of his NHL career while Backstrom notched his first four-assist night of the season and the 12th of his career. Tuesday's game marks the second time Ovechkin has had a hat trick on the same night in which Backstrom racked up four helpers; it also happened five years and one night ago, on Dec. 10, 2013 in a 6-5 shootout win over the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Good fortune shone on Ovechkin for two of his Tuesday tallies, but that doesn't take away any of the luster from a three-goal night.
"I'll take it," says Ovechkin. "A couple of lucky goals."

Sure, but that's why you put the puck in the general direction of the net, and that's been a staple of Caps hockey of late. Tuesday's victory was the Caps' third in a row, and their 10th in their last dozen games. It was also the 12th straight game in which they've scored three or more goals, their longest such streak in nearly nine years.
"It was still early in the season before," says Backstrom. "The season is just progress; you keep building your team and you keep getting all the roles intact. I think lately - the last couple of games - we've been playing good hockey. We've been playing with a lot of speed and we've been playing quick. That's when we're hard to play against."
Washington's entire first period was tinged with a sense of déjà vu; the Caps took a 3-0 lead in the first frame for the second time this season, and for the second time in as many games.

As he did on Saturday night in Columbus, Brett Connolly staked the Caps to an early 1-0 lead, scoring on his second shift of the game. This time, Connolly's opener came on a Washington power play when he deflected John Carlson's point drive past Detroit's Jonathan Bernier.
For the second time in as many games, Washington's fourth line doubled that early lead with a forechecking goal in the game's 11th minute. Saturday's goal came from Dmitrij Jaskin at 10:19 of the first, and on Tuesday Jaskin started the play that resulted in the Caps' second goal at 10:50.
Jaskin won a puck race into the left wing corner of Detroit ice, beating ex-Caps defenseman Mike Green to it, then turning and pushing it to Nic Dowd at the bottom of the left circle. Dowd quickly and expertly went to Travis Boyd on the weak side, and Boyd buried it to make it a 2-0 game.
Ovechkin made it a 3-0 game late in the first on Saturday in Columbus, but he didn't wait as long this time. A fortuitous bounce led to his 23rd goal of the season at 12:59 of the first when his shot from the left point caromed in off of Detroit defender Niklas Kronwall. With the goal, Ovechkin stretched his scoring streak to a dozen straight games, matching the longest streak in the league this season.
The Caps' captain made it a 4-0 game when he took a feed from Carlson and scored on a two-on-one rush at 9:05 of the second.

Sixty-one seconds later, the Caps chased Bernier to the bench with a T.J. Oshie power-play goal. Oshie's goal, his 10th of the season, came from the diamond spot off a fine feed from Backstrom. The goal also came in Oshie's first game back in the lineup after an 11-game absence because of injury.
Oshie's goal was Washington's fifth on just 15 shots, and it chased Bernier to the bench in favor of Jimmy Howard, who faced a 43-shot workload a night earlier in a 3-1 win over the Kings in Detroit.
Early in the third, Detroit's Dylan Larkin spoiled Braden Holtby's bid for a second straight shutout. The Caps issued a coach's challenge, alleging goaltender interference, but the goal call was upheld, making it a 5-1 game at 1:03 of the third.
Ovechkin completed his hat trick at 9:33 of the third, slipping a shot through Howard on the short side after Backstrom won an offensive-zone draw on the left dot.
With 3:18 left, Gustav Nyquist cashed in on a Washington turnover to account for the 6-2 final.
The Caps were at the top of their collective team game on Tuesday, especially early on. That made for a tough night for the Wings in the second half of a back-to-back set.

"Certainly we've given up way too many chances the last couple of games," says Detroit coach Jeff Blashill. "You're not going to survive giving up those kind of chances, so we need make sure we get back to that, back to making teams earn their offense."
The Wings also ran into a buzzsaw in a Washington team that is playing closer to the top of its game than it did during a recent seven-game winning streak.
"We knew they played back-to-back," says Ovechkin of the Wings. "We did a pretty good job in the first putting the puck deep, keeping them out of our zone. That's pretty big for us. It was working for us. I think Dowd, Jaskin and Boydie did a good job, set the tone, scored a big goal. We just followed them."