Canucks Beat Caps 4-2, Improve to 5-3

The Vancouver Canucks are quickly becoming quite the Jekyll and Hyde hockey team as they returned home to hand the Washington Capitals a 4-2 beating only days after looking like a bottom-feeder against the much younger and quicker Colorado Avalanche on Friday night in Denver. 

After a scoreless first period that saw Caps goalie Justin Peters stand on his head and make some marvellous saves on the fresher-looking, harder working team, Washington got on the board early in the second frame when Marcus Johansson wired a wrist-shot passed Ryan Miller to put the Caps up 1-0. A defensive miscue by the pairing of Luca Sbisa and Yannick Weber allowed Johansson to get open in the slot and bury a shot passed the helpless Vancouver goalie.

The Canucks kept up the pressure after that opening tally though, as they scored 3 goals in a 1:47 span late in the second period to take a commanding 3-1 lead before giving up another Washington goal before the end of the frame.

Vancouver held on to the 3-2 lead for much of the third before Radim Vrbata potted an empty-netter on the power play with just over a minute left in the game to seal the win and get the Canucks off to a good start on their 3 game home stand. Henrik Sedin, Nick Bonino and Luca Sbisa scored the other goals for Vancouver while Liam O'Brien scored his first career NHL goal on the Capitals second marker.

Watch game highlights and check the full stats here.

Unlike last weekend when Steven Stamkos lit them up, Alex Ovechkin was surprisingly quiet as Vancouver held last year's goal scoring champ to only 2 shots and limited his opportunities. It was a rare off-night for the Eastern Conference superstar that Canucks fans only get to see once a year.

 

The Canucks are back at it Tuesday when they host the only winless team left in the NHL; the Carolina Hurricanes.

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