The Canadiens trail the best-of-seven series 2-1. Game 4 will be here on Sunday (6:30 p.m. ET; CBC, TVAS, SN, TBS, truTV, MNMT, MAX).
“To their credit, it’s a hard building to play in and they kept coming back, and we’re going to expect a hungry team on Sunday,” Canadiens defenseman Lane Hutson said.
Caufield and Newhook each had a goal and an assist, and Alexandre Carrier and Nick Suzuki also scored for the Canadiens, who are the second wild card from the Eastern Conference.
“I thought we played to our identity tonight,” Montreal forward Josh Anderson said. “Everybody was going from the beginning. We fed off the crowd; they were unbelievable. We’ve got to bring that Sunday.”
Sam Montembeault saved 11 of the 13 shots he faced for the Canadiens before he left at 11:39 of the second period. Jakub Dobes replaced him and made seven saves on eight shots the rest of the way.
Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis did not provide an update on Montembeault’s status or the reason why he was replaced.
“Once the shots were coming, I felt good,” Dobes said. “You get adrenaline going, you get confidence. The guys were playing amazing, so props to them. They helped me out and they closed it out.”
Connor McMichael, Jakob Chychrun and Alex Ovechkin scored for the Capitals, who are the No. 1 seed in the East.
“We knew it wasn’t going to be easy,” Ovechkin said. “We knew they were going to come out hard.”
Logan Thompson made 30 saves before leaving with an injury, which he sustained when Capitals forward Dylan Strome fell on him as Slafkovsky scored. Charlie Lindgren made four saves on five shots in relief.
“I haven’t talked to the trainers yet, so we’ll get an update and go from there,” Washington coach Spencer Carbery said.
McMichael gave Washington a 1-0 lead at 3:20 of the first period. He was on the left edge of the crease to deflect Matt Roy’s shot from the right face-off circle.
Carrier tied it 1-1 at 19:07 with a wrist shot from the point past Thompson’s blocker.
Suzuki put Montreal up 2-1 with a power-play goal at 8:37 of the second period. He took advantage of a turnover and put a backhand past Thompson.
