Capitals Report Card: Caps Beat Canadiens for Third Straight Win

The Washington Capitals (11-8-2) have officially won three in a row. They accomplished that feat with a lot of offense to beat the Montreal Canadiens (10-7-3) 8-4 on Thursday night.

The Capitals previously hit their scoring stride by beating Edmonton 7-4 at home on Wednesday night. One day later, they visited Montreal and somehow outdid themselves to sweep the back-to-back.

Three different Capitals scored multiple goals, as Alex Ovechkin, Ethen Frank, and Sonny Milano all led the way.

Ovechkin seems to have returned to his classic form as he recorded a hat trick. The 40-year-old now has 33 in his illustrious career.

Frank had himself a breakout game by recording four points (2 goals, 2 assists). He secured his first career multi-goal game in the process.

Milano also contributed with two tallies on the night, while Jakob Chychrun scored a goal of his own.

The surging Capitals will look to make it four straight wins when they host the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday.

Capitals Analysis

The Capitals quickly jumped out of the gate early on. Two seconds into the Capitals’ first power play, Ovechkin fired a shot and scored off the draw from Dylan Strome. Though Montreal did respond to make it 1-1 in the opening period.

The middle frame featured tons of back-and-forth action from both teams. Frank ended up scoring the next two goals to put the Capitals up 3-1, with Montreal pulling netminder Sam Montembeault.

Frank’s first tally came at the end of a power play when he scored off a feed to the slot from Ovechkin. Minutes later, Frank picked up a lob pass from Aliaksei Protas and fired a quick shot past Montembeault.

After Montreal cut its deficit to 3-2, Jakob Chychrun scored to extend his point streak to a career-best six games.

Shortly after Montreal responded again, Frank set up Milano to make it 5-3 at the end of the second period. Milano later scored the Capitals’ eighth goal to finish with two tallies.

As for Ovechkin, it was a historic night for him as he added two more goals, including an empty-netter, in the third period. It’s his 33rd career hat trick as he now has 10 goals this season and 907 for his career.

The Great 8 has now scored in four straight games and five of his last six. Additionally, he tied Brett Hull for the fourth-most hat tricks in NHL history and passed Joe Sakic for the 10th-most points of all time.

In terms of special teams, it was one of the Capitals’ better nights, mainly for the man advantage thanks to Ovechkin and Frank. Unfortunately, the penalty kill continues to give up opposing goals, as was the case with Montreal’s Brendan Gallagher in the first period.

Capitals Report Card

Team: A-

The team was somehow able to score more goals than they did Wednesday. Eight goals for the win shows the Capitals we’ve come to know and love are back. Although with the way the game went back-and-forth, they could work on their consistency.

Alex Ovechkin: A+

The 40-year-old Ovechkin has also returned to his classic form. He recorded his 33rd career hat trick, with four of them being against Montreal.

Ethen Frank: A

This was a breakout game for Frank has he recorded four points. It’s the first multi-goal game of his career.

Sonny Milano: A

Milano already had his best game in a while as he recorded two goals on three shots. He ended up adding the Capitals’ eighth tally at the end.

Capitals Special Teams: B

Ovechkin was able to fire home his first power play goal of the season. Frank later scored on the man advantage too. However, the penalty kill gave up a Montreal goal, marking the fifth straight game where the Capitals gave up a power play goal.

Charlie Lindgren: C+

Lindgren may have given up four goals. However, he still made 24 saves, including some huge sprawling saves to keep his team ahead.

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