The Washington Capitals will look to go up 3-0 in the first round series when they take on the Montreal Canadiens at Belle Centre tonight.
How to watch, betting odds and more
Puck drop is at 7 p.m. and you can catch the game on Monumental Sports Network, TNT, truTV, and MAX. You can also listen to the game on 106.7 The Fan and Caps Radio 24/7.
The Capitals vs Canadiens betting odds per Caesars have the Capitals as 1.5 goal favorites entering tonight's game. Washington has -120 moneyline odds while the Canadiens are the underdog at +100. Tonight's over/under is set at 5.5 goals.
In Game 2 Connor McMichael and Dylan Strome scored goals one minute apart in the second period while Logan Thompson stopped 25 of 26 shots faced including all 14 in the third period to give the Caps a 3-1 win and a 2-0 lead in the series.
Through two games, the Capitals hold a 31 to 17 advantagein high danger scoring chances and have led for 72:24 of the 122:26 oftotal game time per Natural Stat Trick.
Washington's 2:31spent trailing is the second lowest total among all teams in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Now heading to Montreal for Games 3 and 4, Washington has won 19 of their last 25 regular season games at Bell Centre and are 2-1 in playoff games played in Montreal all time.
The Capitals held an optional practice and got some good news on the injury front. Aliaksei Protas will travel with the team per Spencer Carbery as he heals from skate cut to the top of his left foot.
History tells us teams up two games to none in a series go on to win it 86 percent of the time. But this series is tighter underneath the surface.
The Washington and Montreal series has seen just nine goals scored in the first two games which is tied with the Carolina Hurricanes vs. New Jersey Devils for the fewest in any series up to this pint. Seven of eight first round series across the NHL are two games in.
Doing the math once again, there's been 104 minutes and one second where the Caps and Canadiens have been within one goal of each other on the scoresheet.
To make things more bleak, 106:23 minutes of five on five sofar have seen the Habs put up better shot attempts with 53.42 percent compared to the Caps 46.58 percent.
The good thing on the Caps front is they played well enough over the first 40 minutes of both Games 1 and 2. They also played good through the first half of the third period of Game 1.
But late in that third period Montreal showed life and they tried to do the same thing in Game 2. Game 1 saw the Caps escape in overtime thanks to Alex Ovechkin's first playoff overtime goal. Game 2 saw Thompson save the night.
Someone will have to step up and rise to the occasion in Game 3 in front of one of the loud buildings in the league. The question is who?