Washington Capitals Overcome Third-Period Deficit, Bury Montreal Canadiens, 5-2, Push Montreal To Brink Of Elimination; Brandon Duhaime Scores Twice


Photo: @Capitals

The Washington Capitals beat the Montreal Canadiens by a score of 5-2 at Bell Centre on Sunday night to extend their series lead to 3-1. Goaltender Logan Thompson, who was labeled as a game-time decision due to an upper-body injury suffered with under seven minutes left in Game 3, made 16 saves in the win.

Washington’s Lines

Alex Ovechkin — Dylan Strome —Anthony Beauvillier
Connor McMichael – Pierre-Luc Dubois — Tom Wilson
Andrew Mangiapane – Lars Eller — Ryan Leonard
Brandon Duhaime — Nic Dowd — Taylor Raddysh

Jakob Chychrun — John Carlson
Rasmus Sandin — Matt Roy
Alexander Alexeyev – Trevor Van Riemsdyk

Thompson
Charlie Lindgren

  • Scratched
    • D Dylan McIlrath
    • D Ethan Bear
    • LW Ethan Frank
    • G Clay Stevenson
  • Injured
    • D Martin Fehervary (knee)
    • LW Aliaksei Protas (foot)
    • LW Sonny Milano (upper-body)
    • C Nicklas Backstrom (hip)
    • RW T.J. Oshie (back)

Montreal’s Lines

Cole Caufield — Nick Suzuki — Juraj Slafkovsky
Josh Anderson – Christian Dvorak  — Brendan Gallagher
Alex Newhook – Jake Evans — Ivan Demidov
Emil Heineman — Oliver Kapanen — Joel Armia

Mike Matheson — Alexandre Carrier
Kaiden Guhle — Lane Hutson
Arber Xhekaj — David Savard

Jakub Dobés
Cayden Primeau

  • Scratched
    • D Jayden Struble
    • C Michael Pezzetta
  • Injured
    • C Kirby Dach (knee)
    • LW Patrik Laine (upper-body)
    • G Sam Montembeault (undisclosed)

Montreal recalled Primeau from the AHL’s Laval Rocket after Montembeault, who is out day-to-day, left 8:21 into the second period of Game 3 and did not return.

First Period

Scoring

Stats

  • 7-5 Washington in shots
  • Washington did not score on either of their two power plays
    • Montreal failed to convert on their first
  • 13-11 Washington in hits
  • 6-1 Montreal in blocked shots
  • 3-2 Montreal in giveaways
  • 2-2 in takeaways
Graph: Natural StatTrick

Second Period

Scoring

  • 1:25, 1-0 Washington: Beauvillier ripped the puck off of Hutson in the neutral zone, streaked to the goal between two defenders, was stopped by Dobés, and Strome swooped in to stuff the puck over the blocker of Dobés. Strome (2-4-6 in four games) has recorded at least one point in every game of the series. Beauvillier recorded an assist on Strome’s goal, extending his postseason point and assist streaks to four games (1-4-5). Beauvillier, a native of Sorel-Tracy, Quebec, has recorded eight points (3-5-8) in 12 career games at Bell Centre (regular season and postseason). Beauvillier is the first player in Capitals history to record an assist in each of his first four postseason games with the club and the fourth with at least one point, following Mike Knuble (five in 2010), Dave Christian (five in 1984) and Adam Oates (four in 1998).
  • 10:33, 1-1 (PPG): Slafkovsky buried the puck through the five-hole of Thompson at the left post after Demidov swerved around Roy and Carlson to behind the net and fed Slafkovsky.
  • 18:32, 2-1 Montreal (PPG): Caufield blasted a slap shot past the left pad of Thompson from the left dot after getting a pass from the top by Hutson.

Stats

  • 17-9 Washington in shots
    • including 11-4 in the second
  • .568 Washington on faceoffs
  • Montreal scored twice on two power plays
    • Washington failed to strike on three
  • 17-17 in hits
  • 11-6 Montreal in blocked shots
  • 8-6 Montreal in giveaways
  • 4-3 Washington in takeaways

Third Period

Scoring

  • 6:39, 2-2: After Wilson dumped Carrier along the wall, Duhaime chased the puck after Chychrun cleared it into the offensive zone, deked around Matheson, took the puck to the net, and McMichael got a bouncing puck that squirted through Dobés. Chychrun tallied his first career postseason assist.
  • 16:23, 3-2 Washington: Mangiapane ripped a wrist shot over the glove of Dobés from the slot after Strome dropped the puck for him at the offensive blue line and Chychrun broke the play out with a stretch pass from the defensive zone. Strome tallied his fifth assist of the series on Mangiapane’s go-ahead goal, his second point of the game. It marks Strome’s second multi-point performance of the series (also three in Game 1). Van Riemsdyk tallied two assists in the third period, marking his first career postseason multi-point game.
  • 17:21, 4-2 (ENG): Wilson ripped Hutson off of the puck, skated ahead, fed Duhaime, and Duhaime dumped the puck into an empty net from the offensive blue line. Duhaime, who entered tonight’s game with one goal in 26 career postseason games, has notched his first career postseason multi-goal game.
  • 19:06, 5-2 (ENG): After McMichael got a loose puck along the half-wall after a missed pass by Montreal, he went on a two-on-one with Wilson and Wilson ripped in a wrister.

Stats

  • 26-18 Washington in shots
  • .583 Washington on faceoffs
  • Washington finished 0-for-five on the power play
    • Montreal went two-for-four
  • 31-25 Montreal in hits
  • 13-12 Montreal in blocked shots
  • 12-8 Montreal in giveaways
  • 5-4 Montreal in takeaways

With Monday’s win over Montreal, the Capitals improve to 24-7-1 in games following a loss this season and own a record of 9-2-0 after losing a game by three or more goals.

Game 5: Wednesday at Capital One Arena (7 PM ET, Monumental Sports Network locally, ESPN nationally)

By Harrison Brown

About Harrison Brown

Harrison is a diehard Caps fan and a hockey fanatic with a passion for sports writing. He attended his first game at age 8 and has been a season ticket holder since the 2010-2011 season. His fondest Caps memory was watching the Capitals hoist the Stanley Cup in Las Vegas. In his spare time, he enjoys travel, photography, and hanging out with his two dogs. Follow Harrison on Twitter @HarrisonB927077





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