Capitals hold off Canadiens in Game 2, extend Eastern 1st Round lead

WASHINGTON -- Logan Thompson made 25 saves, including 14 in the third period, and the Washington Capitals extended their lead in the Eastern Conference First Round with a 3-1 win against the Montreal Canadiens in Game 2 at Capital One Arena on Wednesday.

Connor McMichael had two goals, and Dylan Strome scored the go-ahead goal for the Capitals, who are the No. 1 seed from the Metropolitan Division and Eastern Conference.

“That was the ‘LT’ that we saw it for call it 40 games or whatever he was playing at the beginning of the year where you could feel the confidence,” Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said. “You could feel the building with the energy with each save. It felt like he just got bigger and bigger and bigger. He was tested. He made some huge saves in that third period to keep us in front.”

Christian Dvorak scored, and Sam Montembeault made 29 saves for the Canadiens, who are the second wild card from the East.

“These were two games where you can’t buy that experience for our players,” Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said. “We battled, there were moments that hurt us, they cost us the game. But the team doesn’t give up, we had a lot of chances in the third to maybe repeat what happened Monday and go to overtime.”

Game 3 of the best-of-7 series will be at Montreal on Friday (7 p.m. ET; CBC, TVAS, SN, TNT, truTV, MNMT, MAX).

Although the Canadiens were pushing for the tying goal, forward Patrik Laine did not get a shift in the third period.

Laine, who had an assist in Game 1 after getting 33 points (20 goals, 13 assists) in 52 games in the regular season, had one shot on goal and five shot attempts in 10:10 of ice time the first two periods.

“They’re decisions you make as a coach,” St. Louis said. “I shortened my bench by a lot in the third. … Honestly, I went with the nine or 10 players who I thought could help the cause.”

Dvorak gave the Canadiens a 1-0 lead at 1:16 of the second period when he swept a loose puck under Thompson's pad during a scramble in front.

McMichael tied it 1-1 at 3:47 when he got his own rebound, and his centering attempt deflected in off Montreal defenseman David Savard’s leg.

"I think that was huge for us,” McMichael said. “Before the playoffs even started, we talked about momentum swings and we had a little lucky bounce, and it was nice to get one back and turn the tide a little bit."

Strome put the Capitals ahead 2-1 at 4:47. After Anthony Beauvillier passed to an open Strome in the slot, Montembeault made the save, but Strome buried the rebound.

“I thought [Ryan Leonard] made a great play over to ‘Beau,’ then Beau went right under the [defenseman’s] stick,” Strome said. “Sometimes you can catch a goalie by surprise. I felt like it was a pretty hard pass. Just got lucky it came right back to my stick. He's a big goalie. He gets that pretty quickly.”

Washington outshot Montreal 18-8 in the second period.

“They got two quick goals at the end of the day,” Canadiens forward Josh Anderson said. “We stopped playing for 10 minutes and that’s what cost us the game tonight.”

Montreal forward Jake Evans shot at an open net as Thompson dove across the crease but hit the left post at 7:10 of the third period.

“I think we put up a pretty good fight in the third,” Montreal captain Nick Suzuki said. “Had a bunch of scoring chances that could have went in, but I think overall we’re not that satisfied with how we’re playing right now. We need to go home and regroup and really bear down in these next couple of games at home.”

Thompson preserved the 2-1 lead with a stick save on a deflection by Dvorak at 15:38 of the third period.

McMichael scored into an empty net at 19:58 for the 3-1 final.

“We knew they were going to come out in the third just like they did last game,” Thompson said. “It's easy to get into it when you make those saves. You're definitely right back in the game. It could easily swing the other way if a couple of those go in and you're fighting it, right?”

NOTES: Teams that take a 2-0 lead in a best-of-7 series are 353-56 (.863) all-time, including 266-34 (.887) when starting at home. … Leonard, 20, is the youngest Capitals player to register a postseason point (assist) since a 20-year-old Andre Burakovsky did in Game 4 of the 2015 Second Round. … It was Dvorak’s third career playoff goal and first since Game 3 of the 2020 Stanley Cup Qualifiers with the Arizona Coyotes.

NHL.com senior writer Tom Gulitti contributed to this report.