WASHINGTON — The Washington Capitals will be the first to admit that their power play this season can make or break a game. On Monday, it did a little bit of both.

After going up 3-0 in the first, the Capitals fumbled and gave up back-to-back shorthanded goals to let the Flames back in the game. Ultimately, a two-goal performance from Connor McMichael and strong third period was enough to lift D.C. to a 7-3 win.

Here are the takeaways.

After going up 3-0 early in the game, Washington made a couple of mistakes, which helped Calgary claw its way back into the game and ultimately, even the score in a span of just under four minutes.

Matvei Gridin broke through first for Calgary, getting to the backdoor and finally solving Logan Thompson to pull the Flames within two.

It was on the Capitals' second power-play opportunity of the game, though, that things fell completely apart, as Calgary struck back-to-back in just 1:16 minutes.

Blake Coleman got a shorthanded breakaway early in the man advantage and made the most of it, deking one past Thompson to make it a one-goal game. With time setill left to operate, Washington tried to break out, but a miscue led to Joel Farabee stripping the puck and entering the zone before finding Yegor Sharangovich for the layup in front.

The Capitals completely hit reset when they returned for the third, coming out hungry and rediscovering their play from earlier in teh game. Then, on a third power-play opportunity, D.C. made some tweaks, putting Pierre-Luc Dubois on the top unit and promoting Aliaksei Protas to PP2.

Both units worked to generate looks and keep the puck in the zone, and after some sustained pressure and chances, McMichael got a hold of a rebound that popped t the slot and put home the game-winner.Justin Sourdif struck on an errant bounce just 23 seconds later to secure the eventual 5-3 victory.

Amid the Capitals' struggles and following a Saturday in Boston where they couldn't get much going offensively, coach Spencer Carbery put the lines in a blender and deployed some new-look combinations against Calgary.

Most notably, Dylan Strome and Alex Ovechkin were separated, as Strome went to center Tom Wilson and Aliaksei Protas while Ovechkin worked with Justin Sourdif and Anthony Beauvillier. Ryan Leonard moved up to work with Pierre-Luc Dubois and Connor McMichael, while the fourth line remained intact, with Hendrix Lapierre playing center with David Kampf still going through the immigration process.

The new lines took to one another quickly, and got to work early and often with the urgency level turned all the way up against the Flames.

Just under three minutes into play, Lapierre, after generating some good pressure with his line, got to the front and buried a rebound from Martin Fehervary to give D.C. a 1-0 lead. His fourth line was strong, and he finished the night with a goal and assist.

Halfway through the opening frame, Wilson would add to the lead after a standout shift from his line. After perfecting some passing, a deflected bid from Strome and Protas landed right on the stick of Tom Wilson. He made no mistake, putting the puck top shelf to make it 2-0 with his team-leading 24th of the season.

McMichael later got one of his own to put Washington up 3-0 going into the second. He got wide open in the slot and got a picture-perfect pass from Justin Sourdif before wiring a wrister glove side to end an individual seven-game goal drought.

With just seconds to go, Ryan Leonard buried a breakaway goal to extend his point streak to three games and make it a 7-3 win.

It wasn’t pretty, but ultimately, the Cap