For the first time in seven years, the Caps are moving past the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. And for the first time in just over a decade, the Caps have won a series on home ice at Capital One Arena.
Logan Thompson made 27 saves – including several stops at key points of the contest – and Washington’s scuffling power play struck twice in the game’s first 37 minutes to give him a 3-0 lead entering the third period. The Caps closed out the Canadiens 4-1 in Wednesday night’s Game 5 in Washington.
“It was a weird game, says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “It was a weird game, and you could feel it. We were off early, I felt like it was a little bit of nerves and some touches; we turned it over a couple of times in some key situations.
“And then we settle in, and we find the goals. The power play was massive tonight. We needed to capitalize – their goaltender played phenomenal tonight, no question – and we had some really, really good looks. But we also gave up a ton of good, quality looks, and [Thompson] had to be good tonight.”
Heading into the series, the Caps had question marks surrounding three key players. Defenseman Martin Fehervary is unfortunately lost for the playoffs after undergoing knee surgery, and forward Aliaksei Protas returned to action in Game 5, playing for the first time since suffering a lower body injury on an April 4 game against Chicago.
The third was Thompson, who surprised some by being ready to start Game 1, and then surprised others by starting Game 4 after leaving Game 3 late because of another injury.
Throughout this series, Thompson was a positive factor in the Caps’ drive to their first-round victory.
“I felt good today,” says Thompson. “I think the team was doing a good job of letting me see it. There wasn’t many pucks that I didn’t see tonight, so credit to the group in front of me for making my life a little easier.”
Wednesday’s win means the Caps will face the Carolina Hurricanes in the second round of the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs. Carolina dumped the Devils in five games, finishing off New Jersey a night earlier than the Caps ousted the Canadiens.
“We knew that this was going to be the toughest game of the series to win,” says Caps center P-L Dubois. “We knew it had to be our best effort, and once again we played really well. It never goes 100 percent your way for 60 minutes, and when that happens, you’ve got to fall back on your principles, on the system and on [Thompson], and he was great again.
“The power play and the PK did a great job, and we move on to the next round.”
Entering Wednesday’s game, the forward trio of Alex Ovechkin, Dylan Strome and Anthony Beauvillier was tied for the NHL lead with four goals at 5-on-5 in as many games. But on this night, the Strome-Ovechkin combo staked the Caps to an early lead on the power play.
With Montreal on the power play in the first – and already owning an 8-1 advantage in shots on goal over the Caps – Juraj Slafkovsky unwisely slashed Washington’s Brandon Duhaime in the offensive zone, an infraction that resulted in 32 seconds worth of 4-on-4 activity ahead of an abbreviated Washington power play.
Soon after the 4-on-4 time expired, the Caps had an offensive zone draw. Without a power play goal since Ovechkin scored the first goal of the series in that fashion nine nights ago, the Caps went to the big man again.
It took all of one second.
Strome won the right dot draw from Montreal’s Christian Dvorak, pulling it right to Ovechkin in the pocket, and the Caps captain clapped a shot past Montreal netminder Jakub Dobes for a 1-0 Washington lead at 9:12 of the first period, one second after that offensive zone draw.
“Unfortunate break for Dvorak,” says Strome. “I think his stick was probably broken before the face-off. And then I was just trying to win it; I knew Ovi was behind me there somewhere, and he put a great shot on it. Unfortunate break for them, but great break for us.”
Just over two minutes later, the Caps doubled their lead when the P-L Dubois line turned in a strong offensive zone shift that culminated in a Jakob Chychrun goal. Fittingly, the goal came while Montreal’s top forward trip of Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield and Slafkovsky were on the ice; Dubois and his linemates did yeoman’s work in neutralizing that skilled and dangerous unit at 5-on-5 throughout the series, and it was also fitting that they manufactured the game-winning goal in the Wednesday’s series-clinching contest.
Having seized the momentum the Habs so desperately needed to climb back into the game and the series, the Caps kept their foot on the gas for most of the game’s first 40 minutes, but Dobes was strong for Montreal, and the Caps’ radar and/or finish was off on some of their other prime scoring chances. On the odd occasion where things got a bit hairy, Thompson was right there to settle things down.
Thompson made a couple big stops while the game was still scoreless, and in the front half of the middle period he thwarted Brendan Gallagher early in the period and then denied Kaiden Guhle on a 3-on-1 shorthanded rush to preserve Washington’s two-goal cushion, and more importantly, to keep the momentum of the game in the Caps’ pocket.
Nine nights ago in the opener of the series, the Caps carried a 2-0 lead into the third period, but it wasn’t enough against the upstart Canadiens; they scored twice to force overtime and Washington needed an Ovechkin overtime game-winner to nail down that Game 1 victory.
A series of events – an icing, a lost face-off, and a Washington scoring chance – led to a holding penalty on Habs center Jake Evans late in the second, and the Caps wasted little time in stretching their lead to three.
Painted as the villain by the Montreal media, Tom Wilson delivered a dagger to the hearts of Habs fans with a shot from the slot on the power play at 16:59 of the third, giving Thompson a 3-0 lead to carry into the third period.
Montreal’s Emil Heineman broke Thompson’s shutout spell with a deflection goal from the top of the paint at 2:40 of the third, but Washington’s netminder made sure that was as close as the Canadiens would get.
With Dobes pulled for an extra attacker, Thompson made one last stellar stop, denying Suzuki’s bid from the slot with a glove snare.
In the game’s final half-minute, Connor McMichael sent Brandon Duhaime in for an empty-net goal – his third goal in the last two games – to seal the game and the series, and to account for the 4-1 final.
For the first time since April 27, 2015, Capital One Arena fans were able to watch the Caps close out a playoff series on home ice.
“It’s huge,” says Dubois. “They’ve been great all season, they’ve supported us all season, they’ve been great in the series, so to be able to celebrate with them at the end – and get a win at home – was really fun. And I’m expecting even better in the second round with all their support. It’s going to be great.”
Although the Habs exit the playoffs in five games, they’ll be heard from again and soon. Montreal has a bevy of young, skilled players who appear to have long and bright careers ahead of them, and they’ve got a coach who believes in them and who has helped make them elevate their individual and team games sooner than most expected.
“In the last couple of years, we were developing and learning how we were going to play together,” says Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis. “And this year, there’s a transition of learning how to win. It took some setbacks to really drive that home a little bit, but there was a full commitment and switch from the group, especially our youth, and helped by the veterans on this team.”
“I’m extremely proud of everyone,” says Suzuki. “From the start of the season to where we are now, we’ve grown so much and really felt like we could keep going. I felt like we could have won any one of these games.”
“It sucks right now; it sucks a lot. But I’m really proud of the guys and everything that we’ve learned this year.”
Before his postgame press conference got underway, Carbery took a few moments to congratulate the Canadiens on their season, and to congratulate 14-year veteran defenseman David Savard of the Canadiens, who played his last NHL game on Wednesday in Washington.
“Before questions, I want to congratulate two things,” begins Caps Carbery. “David Savard, the career he’s had. The guy’s been a warrior in this League for a long, long time and it’s an impressive career. That guy lays it on the line, starting his career I remember in Columbus, winning the Stanley Cup in Tampa Bay.
“It was an honor to compete against David Savard, man. That guy ate so many shots and flank one-timers from Ovi; I don’t even know how many. Pretty impressive.
“And also, just to the Canadiens organization as a whole and their team. The path, it’s a lot like we went through last year, and it’s just been impressive to watch from afar, what they’ve done in the second half of the year with a young team. They obviously have a real, real bright future with a lot of good young players that are going to have real long, impressive careers in the National Hockey League.
“What they did in the second half and even the way they played in this series – to me, that wasn’t a 4-1 series. We found ways to win some of those games, but they pushed us in every single one of those games, so huge congratulations to them and their organization. And Marty did a phenomenal job with that team.”
As for the Caps, they’ll take a richly deserved day off on Thursday as they await the schedule for their second-round series with Carolina, the first postseason meeting between the two teams since the Canes ousted the Caps in a seven-game series in 2019.
“We’re going to enjoy this for sure first,” says Wilson. “We know [the Hurricanes] really well. They play fast, they play direct hockey, predictable to each other.
“I’m sure our coaches will give us a good game plan. We’ll enjoy this one, we’ll refocus, and we’ll be ready to go. It’s going to be a fast, physical and competitive series once again.”
