WASHINGTON — TJ Oshie had a goal and an assist, and the Washington Capitals defeated the Montreal Canadiens 3-1 at Capital One Arena on Saturday for their first win of the season.
Conor Sheary and Anthony Mantha scored for Washington (1-2-0), which avoided its first 0-3 start since the 2012-13 season. Alex Ovechkin had an assist for his first point of the season, and Darcy Kuemper made 21 saves.
“I think you could see [the urgency] from the puck drop,” Kuemper said. “Obviously, losing the first two is not what we were all hoping for, so I think you saw a little bit of digging in and making sure we got this one.”
Nick Suzuki scored for the Canadiens (1-2-0) and Sam Montembeault made 26 saves in his season debut.
“We’ve been competitive in every game this year,” the Montreal forward said Brendan Gallagher said. “But you want to be on the right side of it. There’s little critical moments throughout the game which are the reasons why we lost the last two and why we won the first game and we’re still learning all that.”
Video: MTL@WSH: Oshie jams home a puck in the crease for PPG
The Capitals appeared to take a 1-0 lead at 13:29 of the first period when Ovechkin tipped in a pass from Erik Gustafsson. The Canadiens challenged the play for offside, and a video review indicated that Aliaksei Protas preceded the puck into the offensive zone and the goal was disallowed.
Suzuki gave Montreal a 1-0 lead at 2:01 of the second period when he skated behind the Washington net, cut in front and slid the puck through the five-hole for his first goal as Canadiens captain.
“We had some back-to-back really good offensive zone shifts there and Suzi was able to give us the lead,” Montreal coach Martin St. Louis said.
Sheary tied it 1-1 at 9:02. Nick Jensen skated down through the right circle and slid the puck in front of Sheary for the tip-in 16 seconds after he left the penalty box.
“I just kind of got lost in their D-zone coverage,” Sheary said. “‘Jens’ kind of wheeled the whole zone and they had a couple of guys that were eyeing the puck and I just snuck backdoor, and I was able to have a strong stick and Jens made a great play.”
Video: MTL@WSH: Suzuki wraps around the net and stuffs it in
When the Capitals took a 2-1 lead Yevgeny Kuznetsov passed to Mantha in the right circle and his shot deflected off Montembeault at 11:43.
Oshie increased the lead to 3-1 when he knocked in his own rebound for the Capitals’ first power-play goal of the season at 15:20.
“I think we were moving the puck around better, a little crisper, a little more direct,” Oshie said of the power play. “Pretty lucky positioning on my goal. Had to go switch out sticks mid-play there and walked right into a puck sitting there for me.”
Washington was 1-for-2 on the power play; Montreal was 0-for-3.
Ovechkin hit the right post trying to score on an empty net with a minute left.
“They kind of took it to us in the second, where I thought we had a good start in the first and obviously a good third period,” said the Canadiens forward. Jonathan Drouin, who played 15:16 in his season debut. “It kind of stings that way but they’re a team with experience and a lot of chemistry and they’re going to find ways to get goals.”
NOTES: Canadiens rookie defenseman Arber Xhekaj had an assist for his first NHL point. … Montreal center Sean Monahan won 9-of-13 face-offs. … Oshie’s 61 power-play goals since joining Washington in 2015-16 rank second on the team in that span behind Ovechkin (109). … With his assist on Oshie’s goal, Ovechkin has 244 power-play assists, seventh among active players.
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