Canadiens score 6, pull away from Capitals in Game 3 of Eastern 1st Round

MONTREAL -- The Montreal Canadiens scored three straight goals in the third period to pull away for a 6-3 win against the Washington Capitals in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference First Round at Bell Centre on Friday.

Christian Dvorak gave the Canadiens a 4-3 lead, the third time they had led by one goal, at 4:17 before Juraj Slafkovsky extended it to 5-3 by tapping in a pass from Cole Caufield at 13:23.

Alex Newhook then scored Montreal’s second power-play goal of the game at 17:35 for the 6-3 final.

“We try to stay calm no matter what,” Slafkovsky said. “We knew that it’s going to be physical and stuff. We also knew that we just had to control our emotions during the 60 minutes. Sometimes it’s hard, you know. We’ve got guys that want to fight and we had to control our emotions and focus on our game.”

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.

Chychrun tied it 2-2 at 10:47. He took Andrew Mangiapane’s pass from the right corner and moved up before driving a slap shot over Montembeault’s right pad from the top of the left circle.

Caufield gave the Canadiens a 3-2 lead with nine seconds remaining in the period. Hutson interrupted Rasmus Sandin’s pass from behind the net and made a quick pass to Caufield, who shot into an open left side before Thompson could get across.

“I just saw the puck going kind of slow and the other ‘D’ didn’t pick it up, and I just kind of saw some space, and I honestly got pretty lucky,” Hutson said. “But those are the bounces that are pretty fortunate.”

Ovechkin tied it 3-3 at 2:39 of the third period when he drove to the net and one-timed a pass from Strome for his third goal of the series.

“There’s no way the Montreal Canadiens are going to go quietly into the night just because we’re up 2-0 (in the series) and won two games at home,” Carbery said. “So, we all knew that and also know that it’s going to take our absolute best from the Washington Capitals to win the series. I know that for a fact, so we are going to have to be at our best for Game 4, Game 5 and the rest of the series in order to win the series, that’s just a fact.

“So, we weren’t at our best tonight, and we need to get to that level in Game 4.”

Anderson and Washington forward Tom Wilson were in the penalty box for the first 12 minutes of the third after they were involved in an altercation that spilled onto the Capitals’ bench at the end of the second.

“I was on my way to walk across the ice because you have to walk across at the Bell Centre,” Carbery said. “So then I had to reverse my course and head back because there were two large individuals coming through the door that I was trying to exit. Just two competitive teams, two competitive guys going at it.”

NOTES: Ovechkin scored his 75th playoff goal to move past Joe Pavelski for 13th in NHL history. Mario Lemieux is 12th with 76 goals. … Emergency backup goalie Patrick Chevrefils dressed and briefly sat to the right of the Canadiens’ bench in the third. … Dobes is the second Montreal goalie to get a win in a relief appearance in his playoff debut. Charlie Hodge won Game 1 of the 1955 semifinal in relief of Jacques Plante. Rogie Vachon is the only other Canadiens goalie to win a playoff game in relief (Game 4 of 1969 quarterfinal). … It was the most goals Montreal has scored in a playoff game since a 6-2 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 4 of their second round series on May 7, 2015. The Canadiens also had six different goal-scorers in that game.