Like Game 1 of this series back on Monday, Game 2 was a tight, low-scoring affair that saw the Caps come out on top with the win. Unlike the series opener, however, the Caps took care of business in regulation – and did so in their typical resilient fashion.
After a scoreless first period, the Canadiens broke the seal on the scoring just over a minute into the second period, taking their first lead of the series courtesy of Christian Dvorak.
It would not last long.
Roughly two and a half minutes later, Connor McMichael would continue his strong night – and his strong series overall to this point – by tying things up. A minute after that, it was Dylan Strome getting into the action, putting a nice backhand rebound past Montembeault to give the Caps the only lead they’d need for the rest of the night.
Let’s start with McMichael’s play, which was really the culmination of a lot of good work by a couple of overlapping forward lines executing a beautiful cycle game.
The play starts with an excellent save at the other end of the ice by Logan Thompson. The puck ends up behind the net and the Caps win the board battle to free the puck out to Nic Dowd, who sends out Taylor Raddysh and Brandon Duhaime on a two-on-one the other way.
As the cycle gets underway, McMichael replaces Duhaime, immediately jumping in and keeping things rolling before heading behind the net. He and Raddysh work the puck along the boards, eventually winning the battle and swinging around the net to take a nice shot on Montembeault. That one is stopped, but the rebound is left there for McMichael, who fires it back at the net and banks it in off of a Montreal defender.
A little bit of luck, a lot of hard work and skill, and this game is tied.
The Caps weren’t done yet, though, because exactly 60 seconds later – while the legendary Wes Johnson was still reading out the scorers from the first Caps goal – it was Dylan Strome coming in hot with the eventual game-winner. This was just a textbook play in transition, with John Carlson clearing the puck up ice to Ryan Leonard, Leonard carrying the puck into the zone and finding Anthony Beauvillier across the ice with a pass, and Beauvillier getting it to Strome. And Strome took it from there:
That. Is how. You respond.
The rest of the game came down to the goalies, with Montembeault keeping the Caps at bay while Logan Thompson put on a show with a number of big saves that included this insanity:
A McMichael empty-netter with about a second remaining in regulation capped off the win, and the Caps took care of business at home, going 2-0 to start the series.
Onward to Montreal…