By Canadian Press

Red-hot Marcus Johansson scores twice, Capitals beat Flames 3-1

Oct 30, 2016 | 9:15 PM

CALGARY — Marcus Johansson’s red-hot scoring has helped the Washington Capitals rediscover their winning ways.

Johansson scored twice Sunday, including the game winner, as the Capitals beat the Calgary Flames 3-1.

“Sometimes they find a way to go in and sometimes you struggle a little bit. I guess I’ll take it and move on and hopefully it keeps going,” said Johansson, who also had two goals and an assist in Saturday’s win over Vancouver. 

Last year’s Presidents’ Trophy winners had lost two games in a row before beating Vancouver 5-2.

“It’s big for us to come back and get those points. We’re never happy with losing, and especially not when we’re not playing well,” said Johansson, who leads the team with nine points (five goals, four assists).

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All the scoring except for Johansson’s empty netter came in the first period, with Washington scoring on two of its first four shots.

After Brett Connolly converted a Jay Beagle set-up at 2:01, the Capitals surged in front 2-0 at 7:14 when Johansson neatly steered Alexander Ovechkin’s snap-pass behind Brian Elliott, completing a slick passing sequence that began with Nicklas Backstrom.

“Great pass by Ovie. He hit me right on the tape. I just had to put my stick there,” Johansson said.

Chronic poor starts at home are becoming a concern for the Flames, who have lost four of six at the Scotiabank Saddledome.

“We have to find a way to play way better at home and have better starts,” said Mikael Backlund, the Flames’ lone goal scorer. “It’s our barn.”

Calgary had two power plays in the second to try and tie it but were unable to generate any dangerous chances.

“I was disappointed with our execution. Just throwing each other grenades, it seemed like. We didn’t generate, we didn’t get any momentum from those,” said Flames coach Glen Gulutzan.

Backlund had one of Calgary’s best chances to tie it in the third when the puck squirted out to him in front, but he wasn’t able to get very much wood on it.

“I was going the other way, and I had to shift the other way and the puck was just a little too far away,” said Backlund.

Beagle also had a hand in the offence for Washington (5-2-1) with two assists. The Capitals wrap up their four-game road trip Tuesday in Winnipeg.

Calgary (4-5-1) now departs on a four-game road trip that begins Tuesday night in Chicago, which is followed by stops in San Jose, Los Angeles and Anaheim.

“This is a huge road trip obviously,” said Flames captain Mark Giordano. “We can’t dwell on this one too long. We’ve got to learn from it, get going again. We had two big wins on the road earlier in the week. Hopefully we can carry some of that into the next few games.”

Both goalies were sharp in the second.

Braden Holtby kicked out a pad to deny Micheal Ferland from 15 feet out.

On the same power play, Elliott thwarted Ovechkin at the side of the net then threw up his glove to stab John Carlson’s blast from the blue line.

Holtby finished with 21 saves to improve to 3-2-1. Elliott had 26 stops in seeing his three-game winning streak snapped. He falls to 3-4-0.

“Especially when we had a lead in the third period, most of their stuff they got on net was from the outside,” said Holtby.

Notes: The Capitals have outscored teams 11-4 in the first period this season. They’ve also scored first in seven of their eight games… The Flames play 11 of their next 15 games on the road… Ferland and Sam Bennett each had their four-game point streak snapped.

Darren Haynes, The Canadian Press