Anthony Mansa's four-pointer leads Capitals to landslide win over Canadiens

Anthony Mansa had two goals and two assists in 34 seconds as the Washington Capitals beat the Montreal Canadiens 8-4 on Saturday night. #AnthonyMantha #sfour #pointslead #Capitalsblowout Anthony Mantha didn’t have the chance to play in Montreal this season because of a shoulder injury that kept him out of the Washington Capitals lineup for four months. The Longueuil, Que. native made it count on Saturday night with two goals in 34 seconds and two assists as the Capitals crushed the Canadiens 8-4 at the Bell Centre. “It’s really good , especially in games like these in Montreal,” Mantha said. “My family and friends are here, I can’t wait to see them. I’ll try to continue on that run and build up as much confidence for the playoffs.” Capitals coach Peter Laviolette said injuries like Mantha’s have periods of rehab where “there’s no light at the end of the tunnel.” The veteran coach was glad to see the 27-year-old perform ahead of his team’s regular-season home stretch. “It's really good having him back because of his size, because of the way you can be physical, his s level and the way he can contribute to our team when he's on his game,” he said. “It's nice to see him get back and get into a rhythm and be able to contribute.” The Capitals started a five-game game road trip with a 7-3 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs but redeemed themselves with a flurry of goals in Montreal. Alongside Mantha, Washington had five goal scorers in Nic Dowd, Alexander Ovechkin, Garnet Hathaway, Justin Schultz, T.J. Oshie and Dmitry Orlov. The Russian blue-liner added three assists to his tally. Vitek Vanacek made 28 saves in the win. “We had a couple guys who had big nights,” Laviolette said. “But I think everybody was looking for a little bit of redemption coming off the last game where we didn't play the way we wanted to play.” Despite an emotional game Friday night which saw Carey Price make his return between the pipes, Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis was happy with his team’s first period. Ryan Poehling scored twice, Jake Evans and Nick Suzuki added goals. Samuel Montembeault made 32 saves in the loss. For St. Louis, Mantha’s two goals scored on four-on-four, were difficult to come back from. “We fell on four-on-four and they scored two goals, Washington is good with space,” St. Louis said. “I’ll take a bit of blame for that because, honestly, I can’t say we worked a lot on four-on-four concepts. Those goals hurt us.” Montreal recovered at the start of the third period with Poehling's second of the night but Washington responded, leaving the Habs with a five-game losing streak. “The fifth goal hurt, the bubble burst at that moment,” St. Louis