Young Capitals goalie Michal Neuvirth found himself looking into the back of his net one toomany times Friday night in a 3-2 loss. (AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez)
The Washington Capitals scored first, but the Montreal Canadiens scored more and won 3-2 on Friday night at the Verizon Center.
The Caps’ Eric Fehr netted the only goal of the first period for either team, but the Canadiens had twice as many shots on goal in the first, only the second time a Washington opponent has done that this year. Even Alex Ovechkin looked off his game, despite registering a huge crowd-pleasing hit in the opening period. Head coach Bruce Boudreau agreed.
“I didn’t think we were ready at the start of the game,” Boudreau said. “We were flat. I think we thought, ‘Oh, we’re the Washington Capitals, and we’re gonna go out there and it’s gonna be an easy win.’ And there’s no easy win in the National Hockey League.”‘
The first twenty minutes were very physical, ending with a five-minute fighting penalty on John Erskine and the Canadiens’ Georges Laraque, and featuring a nifty hit by Brooks Laich which sent Roman Hamrlik flying into the Capitals bench. Apart from Erskine’s penalty, the Capitals stayed out of the box for forty minutes. But the home team couldn’t break their unfortunate penchant for drawing penalties in the third period: Mathieu Perreault got called for hooking, Brendan Morrison served time for diving, and finally, Laich got called for tripping.The Canadiens scored the game-winner while Laich was in the box.
“I’m not sure what happens to us,” Fehr said when asked if the Caps have a third period penalty curse. “We had a pretty disciplined game in the first two periods, and somehow, someway we found ourselves in penalty trouble again. Hopefully, the curse will be gone soon.”
