Capitals motor past Red Wings for 11th straight home win
WASHINGTON -- John Carlson scored the winning goal early in the third period and the Washington Capitals held off a challenge from the pesky Detroit Red Wings to pick up their 11th straight home win with a 6-3 victory on Thursday night.
After Detroit captain Henrik Zetterberg tied the score at 3 with a nifty backhand goal just 1:25 into the third period, Washington responded with relentless pressure in the Red Wings' end and was rewarded when T.J. Oshie found Carlson wide open near the blue line for a blast that beat goalie Petr Mrazek.
Oshie added two goals, and although he wasn't as dominant as usual, Capitals goalie Braden Holtby made 14 saves to improve to 13-0-0 in his last 15 games.
Washington has now scored at least five goals in 10 straight home games to set a franchise record.
Andreas Athanasiou scored two goals for the Red Wings, who have lost two straight.
The Capitals have gotten off to fast starts all season and Thursday was no different. Marcus Johansson scored for the third straight game, taking a feed from Evgeny Kuznetsov and fighting off a stick check from Athanasiou to beat Mrazek for a 1-0 lead just 5:57 into the game.
Washington peppered the Wings early, taking a 9-1 advantage in shots, but Detroit made its few chances count. Athanasiou showed some nifty wheels, skating from behind the net around to the right faceoff circle, where he snapped a shot that beat Braden Holtby near side to tie the score at 1.
After Nicklas Backstrom was sent off for boarding, the Red Wings' league-worst power play capitalized as a botched clear led to Thomas Vanek finding Athanasiou for his second goal of the night and a 2-1 Detroit advantage.
Washington capped a busy first period when Brett Connolly scored his career-high 12th goal of the season, just moments after being sprawled on the ice after a big hit. Connolly got up to one knee, and after Karl Alzner's shot ricocheted to him, fired a quick shot from a tough angle to give the Capitals a 3-2 lead.
Detroit's Jonathan Ericsson and Washington's Andre Burakovsky both left the game with upper-body injuries.
NOTES: Red Wings G Jimmy Howard was pulled from an AHL rehab start on Wednesday after "tweaking" the right knee he hurt in December. Detroit coach Jeff Blashill said he didn't think the injury was "anything major" and that Howard would be re-evaluated. ... Detroit D Ryan Sproul was in the lineup for the first time since Jan. 10. That left D Xavier Ouellet as a healthy scratch. ... The matchup was a study in how injuries can affect results. Detroit has 222 man-games lost to injury, most in the NHL, and Washington has a league-low 19 man-games lost. ... The Capitals recalled C Zach Sanford from AHL Hershey on Wednesday, but he was a scratch for Thursday's game along with D Taylor Chorney.