Pierre-Luc Dubois will look to continue his impressive return from injury when the Washington Capitals visit the Montreal Canadiens in a battle of Eastern Conference playoff contenders on Saturday night.
Dubois had two goals and an assist in the Capitals’ 3-2 win over the visiting Vegas Golden Knights on Friday night.
That win pulled the Capitals within two points of the Boston Bruins for the second wild-card spot in the East. The first spot is held by Montreal, which has a four-point lead on Washington and three games in hand.
Behind goals by Dubois and defenseman Jakob Chychrun, the Capitals led 3-0 after two periods. Vegas rallied in the third period, and it took several key stops by Logan Thompson in the final minutes to preserve the win.
“That’s probably the best third-period team in the league,” said Thompson, who made 24 saves.
“We weathered the storm and again, just happy to hold on there at the end and it’s [a] huge confidence [boost] for this group. Every point matters right now.”
Dubois has three goals and two assists in three games since his return after missing 47 games because of surgery.
Chychrun leads all NHL defensemen with 22 goals.
Aliaksei Protas and Rasmus Sandin notched two assists on Friday.
“There’s zero reasons to stop for us,” Protas said “We’ve obviously not reached our goal. We’re not even in [a] playoff [spot]. We’ve got to keep pushing, keep fighting. Our focus is obviously on [the next] game but we also think like there is a long way to go.”
Washington won despite going 0-for-5 on the power play. The Capitals are 2 for 23 with the man advantage over their past seven games.
Montreal has points in six consecutive games (4-0-2) but is lamenting the one that got away on Thursday night. The New York Islanders pulled their goalie and tied it with 1:41 left in the third period before winning 4-3 in overtime.
The Canadiens did not trail in the game until the final goal.
Defenseman Noah Dobson scored twice against his former team, and Sam Montembeault made 22 saves for Montreal.
“It’s unfortunate we didn’t get the win,” Dobson said. “I felt like we didn’t do a good job when we had the lead. We allowed them to get back in the game. We’d like to close that out. It’s a sprint to the finish. Every game’s crucial — no matter who you’re playing. That’s my mindset.”
Captain Nick Suzuki, who represented Team Canada at the Olympics, registered six shots on goal.
“Obviously, there were some plays and mishandled pucks you want back,” Suzuki said. “But some guys haven’t played a lot of hockey in a few weeks now.
“I probably could have had a bunch of goals. It’s just frustrating that one of those didn’t go in. It probably could have changed the game for us.”
Washington won the teams’ first two meetings.
On Nov. 20 at Montreal, captain Alex Ovechkin had a hat trick in the Capitals’ 8-4 win.
Connor McMichael scored 4:21 into overtime in the Capitals’ 3-2 win over the visiting Canadiens on Jan. 13.
