After a late second-period tally by Nick Suzuki knotted things up at three, it seemed like the Capitals’ Halloween tilt against the Habs was headed towards a track meet, with the teams combining for six goals in the middle frame.
The opening five minutes of the third continued that trajectory, after Trevor van Riemsdyk broke up a long stretch pass from Cole Caufield, and immediately found Tom Wilson who took it to Montreal’s territory. Whip would send the puck back to van Riemsdyk at the point, who flung it towards goalie Cayden Primeau’s cage. After Primeau made the initial stop, Connor McMichael would find the rebound and bury it for his 5th goal of the year, which would stand as the eventual game winner:
After a non-descript first period, these were the types of plays that were available all night for the Capitals, and became increasingly scarce for the Canadiens. At all strengths, they were able to move into the offensive zone with little resistance from the Habs, and quickly converted them into scoring chances. They were even able to do it shorthanded, where a (very noticeably) offsides Aliaksei Protas was able to finish off a pretty pass from McMichael in transition for what would have been his first of the night.
Protas would get himself on the statsheet for real later in the third, after he stripped the puck from Habs forward Brendan Gallagher, found Dylan Strome in the neutral zone, before finding himself on the receiving end of a nice Alex Ovechkin feed that would end up in the back of the net:
In all, the Caps tilted the ice offensively against what’s been one of the worst defenses in the league, something that’s been a trend in the early goings of this season; they’re now averaging 4.11 goals per game, good enough to tie for 4th in the league this year.