Brooks Laich (L) beat Montreal goalie Carey Price three times, but Montreal
ended Washington’s winning streak, 6-5.
(AP Photos/The Canadian Press,Graham Hughes)

Capitals 5, Canadiens 6 (OT): 89 seconds. That’s almost all it took to erase the Washington Capitals winning streak. Almost. Yes, when a team’s playing on the road in one of the loudest arenas in the league, giving up two goals but seconds after the puck is dropped in the first two periods isn’t the best idea. Nor is allowing two goals 12 seconds apart. But Washington — who does have 15 come from behind wins this season — did both and, despite an amazing third period comeback, went on to lose for the first time since January 12.

Montreal came out of the gates blazing in the first and second periods, scoring 36 seconds and 41 seconds into each, respectively. But Washington remained in the game, and their goals were just beauties. The Caps neutralized Scott Gomez’s opener after a bad Montreal turnover spawned a nice feed from Thomas Fleischmann and some nifty stick handling by Brooks Leich. Perhaps the Canadiens thought that they had the advantage back after Tom Pyatt’s goal to open the second period, but the Caps proceeded to once again level on a fantastic piece of hockey thirty seconds later. Alex Ovechkin, Mike Knuble, Mike Green, and Nicklas Backstrom played a lovely game of tic-tac-toe to leave Habs goalie Carey Price a deer in headlights. The Caps were in the ascendancy.

But after former Canadien Jose Theodore replaced the injured Michal Neuvirth in net, Montreal retook the lead on a Glen Metropolit power play goal. It only took 12 seconds for them to double their lead via a Maxim Lapierre wrister. The Caps countered yet again, but for some reason the referees waived off what seemed like a perfectly good goal, on which Alexander Ovechkin crushed Habs defenseman Hal Gill — and the puck — into the net. (For the record, yours truly wasn’t exactly buying the explanation — that Price didn’t have the fair chance to play the puck — that coach Bruce Boudreau said he was given by the officials.) Washington had reversed two three-goal deficits during their 14-game run, but even an emphatic three-goal outburst in the third wasn’t totally enough to erase earlier defensive errors, and Tomas Plekanec finished matters in the dying seconds of overtime.

So yeah, the big streak’s over. But anyone who watched this thoroughly entertaining hockey game knows that the Caps have nothing to hang their head about (just some defensive kinks to work out). And hey — it’s still 15 games on the trot with a point.