Connor McMichael scored twice and Logan Thompson made 14 of his 25 saves in the third period as the Washington Capitals beat the visiting Montreal Canadiens 3-1 on Wednesday to take a 2-0 lead in their first-round matchup in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Dylan Strome also scored for Washington while Taylor Raddysh, Anthony Beauvillier, Ryan Leonard, Pierre-Luc Dubois and Tom Wilson notched assists.
Christian Dvorak got his first goal of the playoffs for the Canadiens, with Josh Anderson and Brendan Gallagher assisting. Sam Montembeault kept Montreal in the contest by stopping 29 shots.
A quiet first period that featured just 13 shots and no goals gave way to a second period that started at a frenetic pace. Washington and Montreal needed less than six minutes to match their combined shot total from the opening frame.
Dvorak put the Habs up 1:16 into the middle period when he fought through a crowd to sweep the loose puck in the crease under Thompson’s pads.
That advantage lasted for just 2:31, as McMichael evened the score after rebounding his own shot and banking it off Montreal defenseman David Savard into the net.
Strome, who assisted on all three goals in the Capitals’ Game 1 victory, got his first goal of the series exactly one minute later.
The Capitals dominated the period from that point, even if they did not pad their lead. They developed 11 high-danger scoring chances in the period in outshooting the Canadiens 18-8. Washington also held its guest without a shot for more than nine minutes.
Montreal coach Martin St. Louis shortened his bench in the third period in an effort to get the tying goal. That included benching 20-goal scorer Patrik Laine for the entire period. In talking to reporters after the game, he said it was a “gut feeling” to go with that strategy.
“I felt it gave us a chance,” he said. “Unfortunately, we couldn’t get the next goal, but I felt like it was there. We just didn’t quite capitalize.”
Canadiens forward Jake Evans had an open goal, but hit the post on his short-angled shot with 12:50 left and Thompson was able to deflect the puck out of the crease. Anderson had a breakaway less than two minutes later that Thompson denied.
Thompson also came up with a couple more big saves in the final four minutes to preserve the lead. The Canadiens pulled Montembeault with two minutes remaining and McMichael iced the game on an empty-netter with less than two seconds left.
“I’ve been saying it all year, (Thompson) has won us a lot of hockey games, and he’s going to continue to do so,” McMichael said in a postgame interview with Monumental Sports Network. “I can’t say enough good things about LT. He’s a dog.”
–Field Level Media
