WASHINGTON — Two games ago, the Colorado Avalanche welcomed back three forwards against the Washington Capitals, but the performance was not the result or process they wanted.

Flash forward six days to Thursday night with a second crack at one of the best teams in the NHL, with their starting goalie back in the lineup, and the Avs looked more like the team they hope to be this season. Miles Wood scored early in the third period and Alexandar Georgiev made 31 saves to help the Avalanche defeat the Capitals, 2-1, at Capital One Arena.

The Avs took control of the play in the second period and were clearly on the front foot when Wood gave them the lead early in the period. After several Grade-A chances didn’t go in, Wood got a piece of a simple wrist shot by Cale Makar from the left point for his second goal of the season at 3:29 of the third.

Colorado’s power play didn’t look great on its first opportunity, but caught a lucky bounce on its second chance. Mikko Rantanen tried to send the puck through the middle of the Washington defense, but it went off Matt Roy’s skate and surprised the goaltender at 14:19 of the second period.

It was officially Rantanen’s team-leading 13th goal of the season. Jonathan Drouin, elevated to the top power-play unit for the first time since he was injured in the season opener, collected his second assist. Drouin and Wood were two of the three forwards, along with Valeri Nichushkin, who returned to the lineup last Friday in Denver in a 5-2 loss to these Capitals.

Colorado controlled the play for a large portion of the second. The Avs could have easily had the lead, but Thompson made outstanding saves on Makar and Artturi Lehkonen on plays set up by Nathan MacKinnon to keep it to just a 1-1 score.

The last time the Avs played the Caps was the first time Colorado had its top-six forwards in the lineup together since the end of last regular season. Still, they were held to a combined six shots on goal in that game. Those six forwards had nearly double that total (11), including the Rantanen goal, by the second intermission Thursday night.

The Avs started the first period better than they have in games recently, but had only two shots on goal in the final 12 minutes and Washington grabbed the lead with 2:56 left. Both teams were overpassing at times, but the Capitals connected for an easy one when Tom Wilson found Pierre-Luc Dubois cutting to the net near the left post.

Ovechkin out

The Capitals were without captain Alex Ovechkin, who sustained a broken leg in their last game at Utah and is going to miss 4-6 weeks. Ovechkin leads the NHL with 15 goals — he had five in the two games before the injury. He also has 868 in his career, just 26 behind Wayne Gretzky for the all-time lead.

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