First it was Toronto. Now the Washington Capitals have swept both Canada opponents they would face this weekend as they tamed the Montreal Canadiens to a 4-2 win behind a 22 save performance from Logan Thompson including blanking every power play shot and every shot in the third for a .917 save percentage. The win would give the Caps their franchise record ninth straight road win.
Alex Newhook struck first at 11:09 for his sixth of the season then Cole Caufield connected for his 17th at the 16 minute mark. The Habs took a 2-0 lead after 20 with shots 10-9 in favor of Montreal.
33 seconds into the second period a slap shot from Pierre-Luc Dubois put the Caps on the board. It was PLD's sixth of the season. John Carlson would assist on the primary for his 17th while Taylor Raddysh would add his eighth. 2-1 would be the score after two with the Caps leading in shots 8-5.
In the third the Caps poured it on. They would lead in shots 18-9 and more importantly score and hang on inside the Bell Centre. Tom Wilson would score twice at 7:10 and 11:48, respectively, to give the Capitals the lead for good. It was his 10th and 11th goals of the season.
Aliaksei Protas and Matt Roy would help out for Wilson's first on the night as it was Protas' 14th apple and Roy's sixth. PLD and Protas assisted on Wilson's second. For Pro it was his 15th. PLD upped his assist total to 15.
At 13:49 Dylan Strome would put the game away with a power play goal at 13:49 as Jakob Chychrun and Connor McMichael added the assists. For Strome it was his ninth goal of the season and for Chychrun and McMichael, it was their eighth and 11th assists respectively.
PLD, Tompson, and Wilson would earn the three stars of the game. Caps outshot the Habs 35-24. Their face off win percentage came out to 51 percent to the Habs 49 percent. Caps were outhit 28-23 and out blocked 17-16. Giveaways were even at 12. Caps had three takeaways to the Canadiens six.
The win was the Caps second win over the Canadiens this season after besting them at Capital One Arena on Oct. 31. Their next meeting is on Jan. 10 in D.C. In the meantime the Caps will have a good couple days off. Their next game comes on Thursday Dec. 12 as they'll play on the road against the Columbus Blue Jackets at 7 p.m. on Monumental Sports Network.