Alex Ovechkin scored his first two goals of the season, and his second assist of the night set up Conor Sheary for a tiebreaking tally to highlight the Washington Capitals’ four-goal third period in a 6-4 comeback win over the visiting Vancouver Canucks on Monday.
With Washington down 4-2 at 1:16 into the third, Dylan Strome got enough of his stick on the puck, amid a power play, to beat Vancouver netminder Thatcher Demko (24 saves). A little less than 7 1/2 minutes later, John Carlson placed an angled shot over Demko’s shoulder to tie things at 4.
With 7:16 remaining in regulation, Ovechkin slid the puck onto the stick of Sheary, who converted the go-ahead goal. Ovechkin, who had one assist in the first three contests, added some tip-in insurance with 2:58 left to play.
Carlson and Strome each added an assist, while Evgeny Kuznetsov added three assists for the Capitals, who have won two straight after dropping their first two games.
Elias Pettersson had a goal with two assists for the Canucks, who are winless in three games to start the season for the first time since 2009. They are the first team in NHL history to lose each of their first three games of a season while blowing a multi-goal lead in each contest. The Canucks owned a two-goal lead in each game.
Ovechkin’s first goal came on the game’s first shot on net. On the power play, he threw the puck toward Demko, who inadvertently pushed it into the goal with his blocker.
Vancouver tied it with eight seconds remaining in the opening period. Pettersson put the puck home after it took a funky bounce over the stick of Washington’s Darcy Kuemper (26 saves).
Just eight seconds into the second period, Demko failed to play the puck after a hard bounce off the back board. Lars Eller picked it up and found the back of the net to give the lead back to Washington.
However, Vancouver followed with three goals over a 9:31 stretch of the middle frame.
Bo Horvat put home a rebound at 8:03 into the second. Eleven seconds later, Curtis Lazar got his stick in the right spot to deflect the puck past Kuemper. J.T. Miller’s snap shot through some cross-net traffic, on the power play, with 2:26 remaining in the second made it a two-goal Vancouver edge.
–Field Level Media
