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Green, Ovechkin lead Capitals past Canadiens in OT

Jan 5, 2008 - 11:24 PM MONTREAL (Ticker) -- The Washington Capitals have struggled this season, but good things seem to happen when they leave the country.

Defenseman Mike Green scored 87 seconds into overtime, giving the Capitals a 5-4 victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday at the Bell Centre.

Green redirected a pass from Michael Nylander past rookie goaltender Carey Price for his 11th goal, helping Washington improve to 4-0-0 in Canada this season.

"I was thinking I just wanted to get (the shot) off quick," Green said. "Price is so good positionally that if you give him a second, he gets over there and makes the stop. So I got it off quick, and fortunately, it made it into the net."

"I don't know what it is about Canada and these guys," Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau said. "We play with a lot of heart and come up with the wins."

Alex Ovechkin also had a pair of tallies for the Capitals, who won for the third time in four games.

"We're playing more aggressive, we're a young team and we use our speed," Ovechkin said. "We have lots of power to go to the zone right now."

Ovechkin, whose 32 goals rank second in the league behind Atlanta's Ilya Kovalchuk (33), missed a hat trick by inches late in the third period. His bid to break a 4-4 tie failed when his shot glanced off Price's pad and then the crossbar.

"(Ovechkin) gets the puck off quick, I don't think there was much I could do on the first one," Price said of the Russian superstar's goals. "The second one, I could have picked up better."

Price made 24 saves in place of starter Cristobal Huet, who sat out with flu-like symptoms. Counterpart Olaf Kolzig turned aside 23 shots.

Montreal held a 2-0 lead in the second period on the strength of a power-play goal by Tomas Plekanec and a highlight-reel tally by Andrei Kostitsyn, who deked past Green in the slot and snapped a wrist shot over the blocker of Kolzig.

Washington dominated the remainder of the period, however.

"We were playing like in Boston (on Thursday) in the first period, a bit of a sleepy game, low key," Ovechkin said. "But the second period was huge for us, and in the third, we tried to stay on course."

Just 56 seconds after Kostitsyn netted his fourth goal in three games, Nylander drew a faceoff in the right circle back to Ovechkin, who quickly slapped the puck past Price.

With just over eight minutes to play in the second, Washington drew even when rookie Nicklas Backstrom beat Price to the glove side with wrister from the high slot.

The Capitals took their first lead with just over a minute remaining in the second, when Boyd Gordon beat Price with a slap shot from the right side.

Defenseman Roman Hamrlik forged a 3-3 tie early in the third, but Ovechkin re-established the lead with a sharp wrister from the slot with 13:22 to play in regulation.

"They deserved (the win)," Canadiens left wing Christopher Higgins said. "They were first on the puck and won the battles along the boards. I think our level of competition dropped in the second half of the game."

Alexei Kovalev's team-leading 18th goal at 11:26 of the third allowed the Canadiens to force overtime.