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Caps remain unbeaten, clobber Red Wings

Oct 23, 2011 - 3:30 AM Washington, DC (Sports Network) - The Washington Capitals are the only unbeaten team left in the NHL.

The Detroit Red Wings, by a six-goal margin, lost their chance to say the same.

Mike Green had two power play goals and two assists Saturday and the Capitals coasted to a 7-1 win over Detroit in a game between the only undefeated teams left in the league.

"We stepped up to the challenge," said Green.

Mathieu Perreault also scored twice for the Capitals, who are a franchise-best 7-0 to open the season. Alex Ovechkin had two assists and Tomas Vokoun made 32 saves to improve to 6-0 in his first season with Washington.

The Red Wings, who were trying to match the best start in team history, got their lone goal from Niklas Kronwall on a power play in the second period. Ty Conklin allowed all seven Capitals goals on 25 shots.

Detroit played its first five games unscathed and with hardly a challenge, winning them by a combined score of 18-7 and needing overtime only once.

The lone bright spot for the Red Wings was defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom, who became just the 14th player in NHL history to play in 1,500 regular season games. The Swede, who has spent his entire career in Detroit, had an assist in the loss.

His milestone came in Detroit's poorest showing by far this season.

"It shows that if you don't play your best you're going to lose and if you play against a good team they're going to hurt you," said Lidstrom. "They stuck with it for the full 60 minutes and I thought we had some let downs late in the game to let them score some goals."

The Capitals, meanwhile, grinded out two wins in overtime and one in a shootout for their first six wins.

Saturday was a cake-walk.

Green's one-timer from the slot on a power play at 14:00 of the first period, and Marcus Johansson's sharp-angle shot after a turnover just 61 seconds later gave Washington a 2-0 lead.

Green scored his second goal on a snap shot from the right circle early in the second period to make it 3-0.

Kronwall, on a platter-setting pass from Pavel Datsyuk in the left circle, rifled a shot past Vokoun to get Detroit on the board with under nine minutes to play in the period, but the Capitals scored four unanswered goal to end the game.

It spoiled Detroit's bid to match the 1972-73 team for the best start in franchise history.

Perreault hammered in Matt Hendricks' rebound in the final seconds of the middle period to make it 4-1, and Brooks Laich found Joel Ward for a one-timer on the right side for the first of three third period goals for the Caps.

Perreault added another goal and Nicklas Backstrom scored on a deflection with 2:39 remaining to end the rout.

Game Notes

Vokoun had 10 saves in a scoreless first period, was 15-for-16 in the second and stopped all seven shots he faced in the third...Detroit was 1-for-4 on the power play and Washington went 2-for-4.