Regular season records mean nothing once the Stanley Cup playoffs roll around, but the elements that went into the building of the regular season can definitely come in handy at this time of year. Facing the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre on Sunday night in Game 4 of their best-of-seven set with the Habs, the Caps called upon what they built together from October to mid-April to author a spirited 5-2 comeback win over the Canadiens.
The Caps also went to school on the bad beat they suffered here two nights previously, and they’ll head home Sunday night with a 3-1 lead in the series, and an opportunity to close out the Canadiens on home ice in Wednesday’s Game 5.
Andrew Mangiapane’s goal with 3:37 remaining in the third period snapped a 2-2 tie, lifting Washington to its first lead since the middle of the second period. Mangiapane’s shot from the high slot eluded Montreal netminder Jakub Dobes on the glove side, finishing a brilliant play that started from Washington’s goal line with a sharp stretch feed from Trevor van Riemsdyk to Dylan Strome, who was in the middle of the ice just outside the Montreal line.
Strome carried in, then cut left, drawing two defenders to himself as he left the puck in the middle for Mangiapane, and creating a bit of a short ice 2-on-1 with him in the middle and Alex Ovechkin on his right flank. And because Strome pulled both Montreal blueliners toward the left half wall with him, Habs forward Christian Dvorak was the only man back.
Mangiapane wisely called his own number, and he fired it home.
“It was a great play by our [defenseman] there; I don’t know who it was,” says Mangiapane. “But a great quick-up caught them a little bit there. [Strome] with a great play and poise to drop it to me. I was thinking of passing it to [Ovechkin] obviously; he’s a pretty good goal scorer. But I wanted to shoot it on net and get a good shot, and it went in for me. It was a good play by everybody on the ice there.”
“I thought it was a great play by van Riemsdyk, honestly,” says Strome. “We had a couple of times where we hit the middle up through the neutral zone, and just tried to get some speed. Mange came behind me, and I just tried to suck the guy in, and leave it there for him, and luckily he had some space.
“It was a great job by Mange to get open, and he fired it. He’s had a couple of chances this series, and it’s nice to see him break through.”
Empty-net insurance strikes from Brandon Duhaime – his second goal of the game – and Tom Wilson accounted for the 5-2 final.
And before Mangiapane’s goal, the Caps endured a good bit of adversity during what was a trying middle period for them. Washington played a stellar game at 5-on-5 all night, scoring three goals, allowing none, and significantly limiting Montreal’s top line at even strength. But Montreal’s power play struck twice on as many tries in the middle period while Washington’s unit came up empty on three tries with the extra man, including a two-man advantage of 44 seconds in duration, and the Habs carried a 2-1 lead to the third.
“We had a really good conversation,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery of what took place in the Washington room at the second intermission. “I thought we were out of sorts after that second period, because of the special teams and how it went, and us having the 5-on-3.
“Those are stressful situations in a game, and temperatures rise, so if you don’t score on the 5-on-3, it’s hectic – you called timeout – you could feel the temperature in the building [climbing]. They kill it off, then next thing you know, they get a power play and score immediately. I just felt like at the end of the second period, our group was extremely deflated.”
The middle frame was pivotal.
The first period was scoreless, but not without its significant events.
One of Logan Thompson’s best stops in the Washington nets came late in the first when he thwarted Montreal captain Nick Suzuki from in tight after the Caps lost control of the puck near their own line. That Suzuki shot on net was Montreal’s first at even strength in a span of nearly 10 minutes, and it came from eight feet away. Aside from that one, Montreal’s closest first-period shot came from 57 feet away, off the stick of blueliner Alexandre Carrier.
Significantly, that Suzuki shot would be the only shot Montreal’s top forward trio would muster on the night at 5-on-5 against the Capitals.
In the second minute of the second, the Caps grabbed the lead. Anthony Beauvillier grabbed a loose puck near the Montreal line and tried to drive the center lane, but he was sandwiched by a pair of Habs defenders. The puck slid harmlessly off his stick and toward the net, and while Montreal’s attention was on Beauvillier, a late-arriving Dylan Strome cruised in and chipped a backhander to the shelf from the top of the paint for a 1-0 Washington lead at 1:25.
“I felt like I could just reach in and chipped at it,” says Strome, “but I felt like with how much chaos was going on, it was going to be tough for Dobes to cover it. And he kicked it out, kind of perfectly to me. Beau did a great job of taking two guys with him, and that’s how it went in.”
Then the parade of penalties began. Montreal went shorthanded three times in the middle period, with the first two of those infractions overlapping for a two-man advantage for the Caps of 44 seconds in duration. Carbery called his timeout to talk it over; the Caps got one decent look from a tough angle – a John Carlson shot from just above the goal line off to the left of the net. Dobes made the save.
Just over a minute after the Habs completed that kill, Montreal went on the power play and cashed in to tie the game on its first shot on goal of the period at 10:33. Ivan Demidov made a nifty play to create space for himself, and he went behind the Caps’ cage before feeding Juraj Slafkovsky, whose shot from below the left circle beat Thompson on the far side.
Less than five minutes later came the Caps’ next man advantage opportunity. This time, Dobes made an excellent glove snare on Connor McMichael’s bid to tuck one in on a bounce off the lively Bell Centre back boards.
Late in the period, the Habs again went on the power play, and again they converted. This time, Cole Caufield drilled a one-timer from the left circle through Thompson to put the Habs up 2-1 at 18:32.
Despite all their excellent work at 5-on-5, the Caps were headed into the third period looking up at a one-goal deficit and seeking a way to seize the momentum of the game. It wouldn’t happen early; in the first minute of the final frame, they were tasked with yet another Montreal power play, and with top penalty killer Carlson headed to the box.
With that mission accomplished, they set out to grab hold of momentum and manufacture an equalizer. Those two objectives were achieved almost simultaneously.
First, Wilson laid a crushing hit on Habs blueliner Alexandre Carrier near the center line, across from the benches. As Carrier picked himself up and skated back to the bench, Jakob Chychrun lofted a “go deep, I’ll look for you” type of aerial pass from the half wall in Washington ice, to the Montreal end.
Duhaime watched as the puck landed in Montreal ice, and he deftly put the bouncing biscuit between the skates of Habs defender Mike Matheson and put a shot on Dobes, as McMichael and Montreal’s Lane Hutson arrived on the scene. Somehow, the puck went behind Dobes.
“Tom just smokes a guy at center ice; I was kind of admiring that,” recounts Duhaime. “[Chychrun] gets it, and it’s a high flick; that’s a tough puck for any defenseman to handle. And then, it squirts through.”
“Completely changed the momentum of the game,” says Carbery of Wilson’s hit on Carrier. “And that’s a prime example of one of the elements he brings to the game. And he does so many different things, and everybody in here knows how impactful he is, and how unique he is. You saw firsthand how significant he can play a role in the team coming back and winning a hockey game, at the most important time of the year.”
“I don’t think the hit really changed anything other than they went down the other way and just had a weird bounce off [Habs defenseman] Cole [Hutson] and went in,” says Suzuki.
That was just enough for the Caps, though. They’ve authored enough comeback victories during the regular season that they believe enough in themselves and each other, and they have a confidence that someone will step up and make a big play to swing momentum and the game in their favor.
“I think the thing that we really depend on is we’re a really tight group,” says Wilson. “There’s an accountability when you’re that tight with each other, and you pull together, an accountability that when you’re down in tough moments, that you just want to pull for the guys next to you and get it done.”
Montreal’s top line was dominant in Friday’s Game 3, accounting for 19 of the team’s 40 shots on net. The same three Canadiens were limited to four shots on net Sunday, three of them on the power play. And two of those three went in.
“I think we can just put the past behind us,” says Strome. “There wasn’t too many times this year we lost two in a row. It’s just flushing the game before; there’s nothing you can do about last game, the way they played, the way we played. Nothing you can do, just move forward. And obviously we got some contributions today from up and down the lineup, so it was huge.”
It was huge, but not at all unexpected.
“I know our group, and I know the character in our room,” says Carbery. “And we’ve been through some difficult circumstances this year, and the heart of our group has consistently shown through in these moments. And sometimes they need to be reminded of who we are, and how they can play through that.”
