Capitals double up Canadiens
Jakub Vrana had a goal and an assist as the Eastern Conference-leading Washington Capitals beat the Montreal Canadiens 4-2 Monday night for their fourth straight win.
Tom Wilson, Travis Boyd and Nicklas Backstrom also scored for the Capitals, and T.J. Oshie had two assists. Washington, 7-1-0 in its last eight games at Bell Centre, was without star forward Alex Ovechkin while he missed his first game this season to serve a one-game suspension for skipping the All-Star Game.
Braden Holtby made 31 saves and improved to 14-2-2 in his career against Montreal.
Jeff Petry and Dale Weise scored for the Canadiens, who began the night 10 points out of a playoff spot. Carey Price stopped 37 shots.
Washington has been struggling lately with the man advantage but the Capitals managed to score with Max Domi in the box. Trailing 1-0, Wilson beat Price short side, between pad and post, on a pass from Vrana behind the net with 1:30 left in the first to tie the score. Vrana extended his point streak to nine games.
The Capitals took a 2-1 lead 2:03 into the second when Petry accidentally kicked a loose puck behind his own goal line. The last Capitals player to touch the puck was Boyd, who was credited with his third of the year.
A great play by Evgeny Kuznetsov make it 3-1 with 5:09 left in the middle period. Kuznetsov stripped veteran Shea Weber of the puck in the corner and directed it into the slot while lying on the ice, which led to Vrana scoring between Price’s legs.
The Canadiens fired 15 shots on net in the third period and felt they got one goal back when Joel Armia nearly scored, but Holtby narrowly snagged the puck off the line.
Weise did beat Holtby on the backhand a few minutes later, at 7:30, for his first of the season in his 500th career NHL game. But Holtby shut the door for the remainder of the game as Washington improved to 196-1 on the road.
Backstrom added the empty netter with 23 seconds remaining.
Maple Leafs 5, Predators 2 — William Nylander, Zach Hyman and Rasmus Sandin each scored and had an assist to lead the Toronto Maple Leafs over the Nashville Predators 5-2 Monday night.
Jason Spezza and Auston Matthews also scored and Frederik Andersen made 34 saves for the Maple Leafs, who snapped a two-game losing streak.
Mikael Granlund and Viktor Arvidsson scored for Nashville, which has lost of three of four.
Both teams played their first game in more than a week after their bye week and the league’s All-Star break.
Stars 3, Lightning 2, OT — Jamie Benn scored his second goal 2:07 into overtime and the Dallas Stars beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 3-2 on Monday night.
Steven Stamkos had both goals for Tampa Bay, including the tying score with 1:26 left in regulation.
Benn got the winner after a turnover by Brayden Point, who then appeared to grab the Stars captain from behind before his backhander past All-Star goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy.
Vasilevskiy is 11-0-2 in his last 13 decisions, including Tampa Bay’s 4-3 overtime loss at home to the Stars on Dec. 19. He had won his last 10 games, one short of the franchise record.
Benn, who put the Stars up 2-1 on another backhander midway through the third period, finished with his second two-goal game this season and has 14 goals overall.
Ben Bishop, who Vasilevskiy passed last month for the most games in goal for Tampa Bay, stopped 23 shots. Vasilevskiy had 32 saves.