The habs collapse and lose in overtime to the Capitals

Félix Forget
The habs collapse and lose in overtime to the Capitals
Credit: DansLesCoulisses.com

After beating the Canucks at the Bell Centre last night, the Habs were back in action this evening, as they traveled to Washington to take on the Capitals.

For the occasion, Josh Anderson returned to the lineup, taking Owen Beck's place. Kaiden Guhle was left out for a rest day, so Jayden Struble returned to the lineup.

Here's the Habs lineup, with Samuel Montembeault in net:

As for the Capitals, they were without Tom Wilson (injured) and Jakob Chychrun (ill).

Here's the home team's lineup:

In the first period, the Canadiens found themselves short-handed… but that didn't stop them from scoring.

Josh Anderson reminded everyone he was back by opening the scoring.

The rest of the period was pretty uneventful. The Habs headed back to the locker room with a 1-0 lead.

The second period saw a return to the past, as Phillip Danault and Brendan Gallagher joined forces to allow the latter to score.

Zachary Bolduc picked up his first point since December 23 on the sequence.

Then, seconds later, Jayden Struble was heavily hit… and Arber Xhekaj came to his teammate's defense.

He threw down the gloves against Dylan McIlrath.

After 40 minutes, the score was 2-0 in favor of the Habs.

In the third, fatigue caught up with the Habs. The Capitals began to dominate the game… and finally opened the scoring.

Ethen Frank thwarted Samuel Montembeault.

And while the Capitals took advantage of a powerplay a few minutes later, Montembeault recovered with a major-league save.

Clearly, sending him to Washington earlier than the rest of the group so he'd be ready tonight paid off.

But in the final minutes of the third, what had to happen happened: the Caps found a way to tie the score.

And once again, it was Frank who scored the goal. It was his sixth point in two games against the Habs this season.

So we needed overtime to decide between the two teams.

The Capitals took advantage of a powerplay, but the Habs managed to hold the fort. Mike Matheson, Noah Dobson, and Samuel Montembeault were all excellent in serving Nick Suzuki's penalty.

That said, the Capitals were still able to prevail: Connor McMichael pounced on a rebound to give his side the win.

Final score: 3-2 Washington (OT)

The Canadiens return to action on Thursday night, when they travel to Buffalo to take on the Sabres.


Extended

– The Habs got off to a good start, but as the game wore on, the fatigue began to show. It looked like the club was burnt to a crisp by the third period, allowing the Capitals to come back and win.

– Samuel Montembeault was in fine form tonight. The goalkeeper made some big saves to give his team a chance, and you could tell he was calm and confident in front of his net. His stay in Laval has done him a world of good.

– In a game where the Habs were (logically) tired, Zachary Bolduc was really involved. We saw him play with intensity, and it paid off with his first point in three weeks. Maybe seeing the idea of sending him to Laval motivated him, hehe.

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