Thursday’s game between the Caps and the Canadiens in Montreal was one for the ages. And that was before Dylan Strome broke some emotional news immediately after the conclusion of the contest, an 8-4 Washington victory, the Caps’ third win in four nights.
“Before we start, I’ve got some news for everyone,” the Caps center began. “While the first period was going on, my warrior of a wife [Tayler] had our third daughter while we were on the ice. I’m really proud of her.
“It’s tough. You always want to be there for the birth of your children. I didn’t know it was coming this soon, but I can’t wait to go see her. Sutton Kimberley Strome is my third daughter. She was born at 7:30, so it was really quick. She felt it two hours before, and it just happened; there was nothing I could do to get there.
“So I’m super proud of her, and definitely playing with a lot of emotions; I found out after the first period tonight. I heard before the game and talked about what I should do; there as nothing I could do to get back [home].
“I’m just really proud of her. It’s not easy. We go on the road a lot, and our women go through a lot; their bodies change so much. And just for her to do that herself is unbelievable.”
Strome celebrated his third daughter’s birth with three assists. Alex Ovechkin notched a hat trick, becoming the sixth NHL player to do so after his 40th birthday. Ethen Frank had two goals and four points. Sonny Milano had two goals. The Capitals went 15 minutes without a shot on net in the first period of Thursday’s game, and they still scored eight goals.
In a set of back-to-back games, Washington scored 15 goals in about 27 hours. It was a wild night from the very beginning.
The Capitals and Canadiens traded power-play goals in a penalty filled first frame. The Caps benefited from the game’s first power play at the 58-second mark of the first, and two seconds later, they owned a 1-0 lead. Dylan Strome won a right dot draw to Alex Ovechkin in the pocket, and the Caps’ captain whipped it past Montreal netminder Samuel Montembeault for a 1-0 Washington lead at the one-minute mark.
Ovechkin’s goal is his eighth of the season and the 905th of his NHL career, and it’s also his third “pocket shot” goal of the season, all three of which came from Strome winning the draw.
After both teams killed off a penalty, the Habs went on the power play in the back half of the period, and pulled even when Brendan Gallagher scored on a goalmouth scramble. Initially, it appeared as though Caps defenseman Matt Roy successfully swept the puck off the goal line before it fully crossed, but after video review, officials ruled it did cross, tying the game at 1-1 at 15:47 of the first.
In the immediate aftermath of Ovechkin’s early goal, the Caps got a couple of good looks when Ryan Leonard set up Connor McMichael twice on that unit’s first shift of the game. But from that point on, the Caps went more than 15 minutes without testing Montembeault at all. They managed to tack on three late shots from distance – all from defensemen – to bring their first period total to six; Montreal had a dozen shots in the opening period.
Just over half (10:25) of the first was played at 5-on-5. Nine two-minute minor penalties were issued in the first, five to the Habs and four to the Caps, with some of those carrying over to the middle period. Montreal’s Mike Matheson was boxed for hi-sticking John Carlson at the 20-minute mark of the first, enabling the Caps to start the second with a 4-3 power play for the better part of two minutes.
At the exact second of Matheson’s release from the sin bin, Frank restored his team’s lead with the first power-play goal of his NHL career, a wrist shot from the high slot on a half wall feed from Ovechkin.
Less than two minutes later, Frank struck again. Aliaksei Protas lofted a high feed to the Montreal end, and Frank used his wheels to get there first before firing a shot off Montembeault’s glove and in at 3:38, ending the beleaguered Montreal netminder’s night. After yielding three goals on 10 shots in 22:50 between the pipes, he went to the bench in favor of Jakub Dobes.
Dobes’ first save was a denial of Frank’s breakaway bid for a natural hat trick, just ahead of the seven-minute mark.
Montreal moved a goal closer on Joe Veleno’s right circle shot at 7:53, making it a 3-2 game. This time, Washington answered back with an absolute statement shift in the back half of the period.
After the Habs were whistled for icing, Montreal won the draw in its own end. But the relentless tenacity of the Justin Sourdif line kept the Habs from exiting, and Washington soon put Montreal on its heels. Eventually, Carlson fed Jakob Chychrun for a one-timer that beat Dobes to make it 4-2 at 14:26. By that time, three of the five Montreal skaters on the ice had been out for nearly three minutes.
Again, the Habs replied quickly. Less than a minute after the Chychrun goal, Nick Suzuki made it 4-3 after Brandon Duhaime blocked an Alexandre Carrier shot, only to have it bounce right to Suzuki’s tape on the weak side, where he had a layup at 15:04.
But the Caps weren’t done in the middle frame. Frank made a headman feed to Sonny Milano in the neutral zone, and the latter carved his way through the middle of the ice and the Habs’ defense before beating Dobes from between the hash marks at 17:25, giving the Caps a two-goal cushion to take into the third.
They needed it. Matheson made it 5-4 with a center point drive at 5:50, and the Caps needed a brilliant Lindgren save on Oliver Kapanen seconds later to keep the lead.
The Caps staved off the Montreal uprising, and then Strome took off on a 2-on-1 and made a brilliant feed to Ovechkin, who buried it at 16:03 to take the last bit of life out of the Habs.
Ovechkin’s empty-net goal enabled him to complete the hat trick at 17:56, and with Dobes back between the pipes, Milano accounted for the 8-4 final with his second of the game at 18:34.
“He is a hockey player through and through,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery of Strome. “And I just can't say enough good things about Stromer in the last three years – two plus years – that we've spent together, and how much of a competitor is, how bad he wants to win, how badly he wants to be successful in the game of hockey.
“And he's going to be in this game for a long, long time, long after he's done playing, but this will be one night that he will never forget, and I'll never forget when his daughter was born, and to win the way that we did, and the guys to rally around him at the Bell Centre, back-to-back, everything surrounding the game. Good for him, I’m proud of him, and a night we won't forget.”
Welcome to the world, Sutton Kimberley Strome!
