WASHINGTON, D.C. — Alex Tuch had two goals and an assist Wednesday night, and the Washington Capitals held on to beat the Montreal Canadiens 5-4 at Capital One Arena, ending a two-game slide.
Washington, now 4-3-0, was coming off a 4-2 loss at Carolina one night earlier. The game was tied four times before defenseman Justin Holl put the Capitals ahead 4-3 at 12:29 of the third period with a point shot through a screen. Alex Ovechkin picked up an assist on the goal, the 760th of his career, leaving him two short of the franchise mark of 762 held by Nicklas Backstrom.
Tuch, acquired from Buffalo on June 24, pushed the lead to 5-3 later in the period for his fifth goal of the season. He had also scored short-handed 6:16 into the second. Jordan Kyrou added a goal and an assist, Ivan Miroshnichenko scored, and Ilya Protas set up two goals.
Montreal got two goals from Josh Anderson plus one each from Lane Hutson, who faced his younger brother Cole for the first time, and Nick Suzuki, whose power-play goal with 1:39 left made it a one-goal game. Charlie Lindgren stopped 26 shots for Washington, while Jakub Dobes made 18 saves for the Canadiens, now 3-3-1.
