News

Montreal Dumps Washington, 6-2; Strome Hits 20 Goals

By Harrison Brown·
Photo by David Kirouac/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

The Washington Capitals fell to the Montreal Canadiens by a score of 6-2 at Bell Centre and below .500 (34-35-9) on Thursday night. Both teams were eliminated from the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs entering the game. Goaltender Darcy Kuemper made 25 saves in the defeat.

Washington’s Lines at Montreal

Alex Ovechkin — Dylan Strome — Tom Wilson
Sonny Milano — Nicklas Backstrom — Aliaksei Protas
Conor Sheary — Evgeny Kuznetsov — Craig Smith
Nic Dowd — Nicolas Aube-Kubel

Martin Fehervary — John Carlson
Rasmus Sandin — Nick Jensen
Alexander Alexeyev — Matt Irwin

Kuemper
Charlie Lindgren

Injured: RW Connor Brown (ACL, 74th, indefinite); LW Carl Hagelin (hip, 78th, indefinite); RW T.J. Oshie (upper-body, second, day-to-day); D Trevor Van Riemsdyk (upper-body, second, day-to-day); LW Anthony Mantha (lower-body, first, status unknown)

Besides Mantha coming out, Washington made no line changes from their 5-2 loss to the New York Rangers on Sunday and dressed 19 skaters.

Montreal’s Lines

Rafael Harvey-Pinard — Nick Suzuki — Joel Armia
Denis Gurianov — Jonathan Drouin — Brenden Gallagher
Tyler Pitlick — Jake Evans — Mike Hoffman
Michael Pezzetta — Chris Tierney — Jesse Ylonen

Michael Matheson — Justin Barron
Corey Schueneman — Johnathan Kovacevic
Joel Edmundson — Chris Wideman

Sam Montembeault
Cayden Primeau

Scratched: C Sean Farrell, RW Alex Belzile, D Kaiden Guhle

Injured: RW Cole Caufield (shoulder, 33rd, season); RW Juraj Slafkovsky (lower-body, 36th, month-to-month); D Arber Xhekaj (undisclosed, 26th, indefinite); C Sean Monahan (groin, 54th, season); C Christian Dvorak (knee, 15th, season); LW Josh Anderson (lower-body, eighth, indefinite); C Kirby Dach (upper-body, fifth, week-to-week); D Jordan Harris (undisclosed, second, day-to-day); G Jake Allen (lower-body, fifth, indefinite)

First Period

Scoring

5:30, 1-0 Washington: Strome picked the puck up at center behind Edmundson, skated ahead, looked across for a pass on the odd man rush, and called his own number, ripping a wrister to the top right corner on Montembault for his 20th of the season. Strome reached the 20-goal mark for the third time in his career (2021-22: 22, 2018-19: 20). 22 of Jensen’s 23 assists this season have come at five-on-five, the second-highest total on the team (Kuznetsov: 24). In 55 career games vs. Montreal, Ovechkin has recorded 64 points (37 goals). Ovechkin’s 64 points against the organization are the most among active players.

With 9:33 left, Wilson tussled with Pezzetta in the corner and took him down after Pezzetta ran over Dowd.

Stats:

Screenshot: NHL.com
Screenshot: Natural StatTrick

Second Period

Scoring

3:42, 1-1 (SHG): After Edmundson flipped a stretch pass off of the glass from the defensive zone, Suzuki found himself all alone on a breakaway, deked, and put one around the right pad of Kuemper and in.

7:52, 2-1 Montreal (SHG): Matheson got the puck at the point off of an offensive zone draw and sent the puck to Armia, who ripped it in from the slot.

9:23, 3-1: After an attempted pass by Dowd went off of the official, Drouin picked the puck up behind the net and fed Gallagher, who wristed a shot top shelf on Kuemper.

11:15, 4-1: Armia blasted a one-timer past the blocker of Kuemper from the high slot after getting fed by Matheson from the right half-wall off of the draw.

Stats:

Screenshot: NHL.com
Screenshot: Natural StatTrick

Third Period

Scoring

14:27, 4-2 (PPG): Backstrom finished Strome’s feed from the goal-line under the pad of Montembault all alone in front. Six of Backstrom’s seven goals this season have come on the power-play. Strome hit the 60-point plateau for the first time of his NHL career on the play. Strome’s 16 multi-point games this season rank second on Washington, trailing only Ovechkin (20). Carlson, who tallied the secondary helper, has recorded six points (five assists) in six games since returning to the Capitals’ lineup on March 23.

16:58, 5-2 (ENG): Armia banked the puck off of the wall, fought off Carlson, took it to the cage, and potted one into the goal.

19:42, 6-2: Hoffman one-timed a shot from the right dot high glove on Kuemper after getting a feed by Evans, who got the puck rimming off of the half-wall.

Stats:

Screenshot: NHL.com

Current Draft Lottery Standings

Washington remain two points back of the St. Louis Blues (who have played one more game than Washington and Detroit) and three behind the Detroit Red Wings for 22nd in the NHL standings. The Vancouver Canucks, who are currently two back of Washington with a game in hand, host the Chicago Blackhawks later on Thursday.

Next game: Saturday vs. Florida Panthers (7 PM ET, NBC Sports Washington in-market, ESPN+ out-of-market)

By Harrison Brown