The Washington Capitals punched their ticket to the second round on Wednesday night, defeating the Montreal Canadiens 4-1 in Game 5 to close out the series. Next up, they’ll take on the Carolina Hurricanes in Round 2.
In the postgame press conference, Capitals forward Tom Wilson took a shot at the Canadiens’ physical style of play, calling it “cheap.”
“We knew that they were going to play kind of cheap and try and get us off our game, so that got crazy at times, but that’s why hockey is so fun, that why we all love the sport, we love playing them, we love competing,” Wilson said via SporstNet.com.
“So it’s a heck of a physical series, but that’s what playoffs all about,” he added.
The series featured plenty of hard hits and scrums between the two teams. Wilson was often in the middle of extracurricular activities, battling with Canadiens players like Josh Anderson and Arber Xhekaj.
Wilson added that the Capitals handled the Canadiens’ physical style by keeping their focus and sticking to their game. He emphasized that this is what makes hockey such a great sport — players on both sides are willing to do whatever it takes for their team.
“They have a couple of those guys and we have bunch of guys in our room, pretty much everybody willing to stick out for the guy next to him, play hard,” Wilson said.
This marks Washington’s first playoff series win after winning the Stanley Cup in 2018. For the Canadiens, it’s a disappointing end to a season after clinching the second Wild Card spot in the East.
Alex Ovechkin “focusing” on Capitals Round 2
Alex Ovechkin scored his fourth goal of the postseason in the series-clinching game, tying Mario Lemieux for the 12th-most playoff goals in NHL history with 76.
After the win, Ovechkin said via NHL.com:
“Right now, we’re focusing on Game 1, Round 2. So, yeah, we won a series and we’re going to enjoy it tonight, and tomorrow it’s a new day and it’s going to be a new series. So, we have to be smart and we have to move on and go game by game.”
Washington got goals from Brandon Duhaime, Wilson, Ovechkin and Jakob Chychrun on the night, while Logan Thompson backstopped for the Capitals with 28 saves.
On the other side, Emil Heineman provided the lone goal for Montreal, while Jakub Dobes stopped 24 shots in net.
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Edited by Veer Badani
