A clinical third period for the visiting Washington Capitals silenced the deafening Bell Centre crowd and won the night against the Montreal Canadiens in the pivotal game four of the first-round matchup.
Down two games to none, the Habs took full advantage of home ice and won game three before the Caps took the fourth game and head home to the U.S. capital up 3-1 in the series.
The win snaps a five-game playoff road losing streak for Washington.
The first period was cagey, with neither team able to break the goose eggs on the scoreboard.
That changed a minute into the second period when Capital Dylan Strome shovelled a backhand shot past Jakub Dobes, who started in place of the injured Sam Montembeault.
The Bell Centre, however, went from simmering saucepan to bubbling, boiling cauldron about five minutes later when the Habs killed off a five-on-three Capitals power play, inspiring the home crowd to a deafening roar.
The crowd went crazy just past halfway through the period when a Lane Hutson to Ivan Demidov to Juraj Slafkovsky; USA to Russia to Slovakia; 21 to 19 to 21-year-old power play goal tied the game.
Just before the end of the second, a Cole Caufield slapper from Hutson and Demidov gave the Habs the lead heading into the final period.
The third would be all Capitals.
After an initial push from the home side, a Tom Wilson crushing hit on Alexandre Carrier led to a Capitals counter-attack finished by Brandon Duhaime, whose backhand lit the red light and tied the game at deuces.
With 3:37 left in the third, Washington’s Andrew Mangiapane found some space in front of Dobes’ net and sniped a top-shelf wrister into the corner to retake the lead for the visitors and silence the crowd.
Duhaime and Wilson added empty net goals to seal the game.
Now it will be up to the Habs to do what they did in 2010: come back from 3-1 down to beat the Washington Capitals.
Game five is Wednesday.
