Capitals ‘scratch and claw’ for a 4-3 victory in Montreal

“I loved the resiliency,” Capitals Coach Spencer Carbery said. “This game, for us, as we try to stay in this fight, we had to have two points. There’s no skirting around it. We needed two points tonight, so for us to deliver — we give the lead back, and then we get that game-winner. Liked a lot of the things we did tonight.”

Goaltender Darcy Kuemper made 28 saves for Washington, which got the winning goal from Aliaksei Protas with 8:03 to go. Jake Allen stopped 30 shots for Montreal.

Anthony Mantha, who grew up just outside Montreal, gave Washington (24-21-8) the lead just 3:40 in. Defenseman Nick Jensen’s shot from the top of the right circle was tipped by Protas in front of the net, and Allen couldn’t control the puck. Mantha was waiting on the back post to tap in the rebound.

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But the lead quickly vanished. Just 84 seconds later, Montreal’s Arber Xhekaj fired a blistering one-timer — the broadcast on Sportsnet registered it at 102.2 mph — off the rush that Kuemper didn’t see coming. Kuemper, who was partially screened by winger Tom Wilson, glanced up at the video board after the red light went on, a near-universal sign that the goalie wasn’t quite sure what happened.

The fast-paced first period led to winger Max Pacioretty, who captained the Canadiens (22-25-8) from 2015 to 2018, drawing a tripping penalty on Joel Armia about midway through. The tone for a power play is often set in the early seconds of the man advantage, and after center Dylan Strome won the faceoff to begin the sequence, it was clear Washington was in sync.

The Capitals snapped the puck around the zone in a way they haven’t for much of the season, and winger T.J. Oshie capitalized on Washington’s sixth shot in under a minute to score his 300th career goal at 10:00.

“Power play had a little bit of a different look, a little bit more movement tonight, which we’ve been trying to get to,” Oshie said. “We got there tonight and ended up finding the back of the net. That’s a good little bit of momentum for the PP moving forward here.”

The second period quickly turned frantic and may have featured more turnovers and icing calls than it did scoring chances. The Capitals clung to their slight edge until, with 3:45 left, Montreal’s Alex Newhook benefited from a fortuitous bounce after Capitals winger Beck Malenstyn blocked his shot. The rebound came directly to Newhook, who slotted it past Kuemper to tie it.

Washington got its own fortuitous bounce early in the third period when winger Sonny Milano, playing his first game since Dec. 10 after missing 27 games with an upper-body injury, redirected a blind pass from Pacioretty past Allen to give the Capitals their third lead of the game at 3:27.

That was not the end of the roller coaster. Nick Suzuki, who had two goals against the Capitals in Montreal’s 5-2 victory Feb. 6 at Capital One Arena, evened the score again with a power-play tally at 9:45. His shot from the top of the left circle appeared to deflect off defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk on the way to the net, giving Kuemper little chance.

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But just over two minutes later, Protas, who hadn’t scored since Dec. 7, finally found the back of the net — for his fourth goal of the season and Washington’s fourth lead of the game. Allen stopped center Nic Dowd’s initial shot, but Protas, battling for position at the front of the net, followed up the rebound and fired it home.

“That’s a big one,” Protas said. “As a forward, you always want to score. You just have to get to the net, get in there and just battle through that in there. I found one, so that’s great. Hopefully it will get me going.”

Even after Protas scored what became the game-winner, the Capitals couldn’t relax. Wilson took a high-sticking penalty with just 1:27 to play, giving Montreal a six-on-four advantage as it sought the tying goal with its net empty. Defenseman John Carlson had to block a shot by Juraj Slafkovsky as time expired to seal the win.

“There’s not a point out there that we don’t need right now,” Oshie said. “To get it done, to get it done in regulation and really just scratch and claw. . . . We want to protect leads better than we did tonight, but for the guys to gut it out until the very end, it’s something we’ve seen a lot from this group. We’re going to need it, definitely, going down the stretch here.”

Note: Defenseman Martin Fehervary left early in the first period with a lower-body injury and did not return. He skated just two shifts, totaling 96 seconds. The injury appeared to happen on an awkward fall behind Washington’s net. Carbery didn’t have an update on the severity of the injury, but Fehervary was using crutches as he departed the dressing room.