Brandon Duhaime scores 2 as the Capitals beat the Canadiens 5-2 to take a 3-1 series lead
Brandon Duhaime scores 2 as the Capitals beat the Canadiens 5-2 to take a 3-1 series lead
MONTREAL (AP) — Andrew Mangiapane scored the go-ahead goal with just under four minutes remaining, Brandon Duhaime had two goals and Logan Thompson made 16 saves to lead the Washington Capitals to a 5-2 win over the Montreal Canadiens on Sunday night for a 3-1 lead in the first-round series.
The teams head back to Washington, where the Capitals won the first two games, for Game 5 on Wednesday night.
Dylan Strome had a goal and assist and Tom Wilson also scored for the Capitals.
“The building is erupting, you’re going to deal with that if you’re going to win a playoff series, you’re going to have to overcome adversity,” Washington coach Spencer Carbery said. “That was a prime example tonight of us being able to do that.”
Juraj Slafkovsky and Cole Caufield scored for Montreal. Ivan Demidov and Lane Hutson each had two assists. Jakub Dobes made 21 saves.
“It’s a resilient group and we knew we had to win a game there, so we’re going to do that,” Montreal coach Martin St. Louis said. “We’ll keep extending this series.”
Mangiapane picked up a drop pass at the blue line and beat Dobes on the glove side as Washington rallied from a 2-1 deficit entering the third period.
Thompson returned to the lineup and had a strong game after exiting with an injury late in Game 3. Teammate Dylan Strome crashed into his goaltender on Montreal’s fifth goal Friday, and Thompson needed to be helped off the ice.
Dobes was making his first career playoff start. The 23-year-old from Czechia replaced injured starter Sam Montembeault midway through the second period in Game 2. Montembeault is considered day-to-day with a lower-body injury.
The Canadiens defeated the Capitals 6-3 in a chaotic Game 3 — the first playoff game at the sold out Bell Centre since 2017 — in a matchup that included a bench brawl and both starting goalies sustaining injuries.
Duhaime tied it at 2 at 6:39 of the third period after a couple fortunate bounces on his shot at the side of the net. The goal followed a massive hit by Wilson on defenseman Alexandre Carrier, who later left the game.
“Completely changed the momentum in the game,” Carbery said. “Everybody in here knows how impactful he is, how unique he is.”
Slafkovsky tied it on a power play at 10:33 of the second, finishing a feed from Demidov and a secondary assist from Hutson.
Caufield made it 2-1 at 18:32 with another power-play goal, beating Thompson on a one-timer.
After a sloppy first period, Strome capitalized on a couple of Canadiens mistakes and opened the scoring 1:25 into the second.
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AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/NHL
