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Caps win - Ovi is redhot, Backstrom is Backstrom |
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Coming off a shutout win over Columbus in their previous game, the Washington Capitals continued to dominate in a 6-2 win over Detroit on Tuesday night with Alex Ovechkin recording the 21st hattrick of his career and also Nicklas Backstrom registering the 12th four-assist game of his career. It was a great night for Washington’s offense as 11 skaters registered at least one point. The win moves the Caps five points clear of second place Columbus in the Metro Division.
Brett Connolly opened the scoring on the power play 3:29 in when he tipped a John Carlson shot to give the Caps the 1-0 lead. It was the versatile winger’s 6th goal and now has points in five straight as he continues to be a catalyst up and down the line-up for coach Reirden.
Travis Boyd would put the home team up 2-0 at the 10:50 midway point of the period on an excellent play by the fourth line. Dmitrij Jaskin hustled to beat out an icing call and got the puck to Nic Dowd who then passed off to Boyd who made no mistake burying his second goal in as many nights.
Washington continued to roll when Ovechkin would get his first of the night and 23rd of the season after a lucky deflection of Wings defenseman Niklas Kronwall’s leg made it past goalie Jonathan Bernier to give the Caps the 3-0 lead heading into the first intermission.
Washington’s 2nd periods have been their best so far this season and tonight was no different as Ovechkin would score his 24th and second of the game putting the Caps up 4-0. After a beauty stretch pass by John Carlson, the Great Eight came down the left side and wired a wrist shot past Bernier.
Bernier’s night was over just a minute later at 10:06 when TJ Oshie scored his 10th goal in his first game back from a concussion on a nice feed to the slot by Backstrom on the power play.
Goalie Jimmy Howard, who had played marvelously the night before vs LA would enter the game down 5-0. The goal gave the Caps a perfect 2/2 with their 5th ranked man advantage over the 15th ranked penalty killing unit of Detroit. Evgeny Kuznetsov’s assist stretched his point-streak to 6 games now with one goal and 6 assists over that span.
Detroit would bust Holtby’s shutout bid making it 5-1 just 1:03 into the third on a Dylan Larkin goal. Holtby had played 102:28 consecutive minutes without a goal to that point stopping 50 shots over 3 starts. The speedy winger cashed in for his 13th goal after a turnover by Caps defenseman Matt Niskanen in his end led to a point shot rebound that Larkin swept past Holtby.
Alex Ovechkin would salt away any chance of the Wings getting back into it and stole the momentum back making it 6-1 when he scored his 25th of the year and finished the hat-trick with a slap shot that beat Howard just under the pad.
Backstrom’s assist on the play was his fourth of the game and it propelled him into the top ten in NHL scoring with 38 points and he now has two 4 assist games in his last six. Alex Ovechkin had his 126th multi-goal game which is eleventh most in NHL history and with 25 goals now just 30 games into the season it marks the best 30 game start throughout his career. He is 33 years old! During his 12 game point streak, he has amassed 13 goals and 6 assists for 20 points and has clearly washed away any rust from a well-deserved summer of celebration.
Gustav Nyquist would score his 8th for Detroit making it closer but it was too little and way too late as the game would end 6-2.
Braden Holtby was needed at times stopping multiple breakaways and improved his record to 12-7 stopping 35 of 37 shots.
Caps now hit the road for a short one-game trip Friday night at PNC Arena in Raleigh, NC for a divisional date with the Hurricanes at 7:30PM EST. They’ll return home for a back to back vs Buffalo on Saturday night.
Washington Capitals Blogger • 
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