The Bell Centre was just as loud for game 4 as it was for game 3 of the Montreal Canadiens’ first-round series against the Washington Capitals, when poor Michel Lacroix tried to announce the anthems, he was drowned out by a very loud “Ole, ole, ole” chant, and you could feel the electricity in the air. To everyone’s surprise, goaltender Logan Thompson was back in the net, while Jakub Dobes was defending the Habs’ cage.

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Asked about what happened in game three, Thompson explained:

I kind of got my bell rung a bit there. It was scary; it definitely could have been a lot worse, but coming back from injury and doing some protocol, I lost my balance getting up. Luckily, things were ok, and I was able to play.

– Thompson on Friday night’s injury.

There was no mention of what looked like a knee injury on the play, whether that’s just playoff secrecy or if it was just a big scare, we’ll never know.

After the NHL warned both teams to watch themselves with the extracurricular activities, the referees seemed to want to play a bigger part in the game and establish limits early, calling three penalties in the first frame alone. They added another five in the second, including three against the Canadiens that did not go down well in the Bell Center.

Defending Ovechkin On The Power Play

The Canadiens had a new way to defend against Alexander Ovechkin tonight on the power play. Often, they isolated the Caps’ captain. The Russian sniper stands around waiting for the puck, making it easy to stand right before him to cut off any potential pass.

Montreal decided to do it very closely, almost forcing him out of the play. They sacrificed a player and had to defend four-on-three on the rest of the ice, but it worked well. It would have been a different story had it not been for Dobes’ heroics; the young netminder stole at least three goals on the penalty kill.

Twice, his side-to-side displacement was perfect to stop one-timers, and once, he made a glove save low nearside that looked like a definite goal. The Habs had three penalties in the second frame, but they still came out of the period with two goals on four shots.

The Future Is Now

With Patrik Laine still out of action, the newly formed first power play unit got more ice time, and it became evident that Ivan Demidov could be a key cog of the Canadiens’ man advantage.

The first unit scored the Canadiens two goals tonight, and Demidov shone brightly on each. The youngster has excellent hands and repeatedly dazzled the Bell Centre crowd. On the first goal, he evaded his coverage with a couple of nifty moves, got behind the net, saw Juraj Slafkovsky on the doorstep, and just like that, the puck was behind Tompson.

WHAT A MOVE BY DEMIDOV TO FEED SLAFKOVSKY 🔥 pic.twitter.com/ZZtchuuJZB

— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) April 28, 2025

On the second goal, he got the secondary assist, but it was his puck possession skills that allowed the Canadiens to keep possession and set up properly, allowing Cole Caufield to give Montreal a 2-1 lead.

Hitting The Wall

The Canadiens were less than 17 minutes away from tying the series at two a piece when Tom Wilson rocked Alex Carrier with a big hit and gained puck possession for the Caps. Seconds later, after the puck went up in the air and dropped in front of Dobes, Brandon Duhaime tapped it to tie up the score.

The headshot that puts the #AllCaps in the second round? https://t.co/xIKnaGgMg4

— Jimmy Murphy (@MurphysLaw74) April 28, 2025

Asked if the Canadiens tried to talk to him after his hit on Carrier and if he just skated away, Wilson explained:

It’s a loud building, there’s a lot of emotion, the last game was really chaotic, and speaking to the coaches and a lot of people that I trust over the last couple of days, it’s good for me to be on the ice. I can’t be sitting in the box for 14 minutes. In the first game, I get coincidental, and I’m in the box for eight to nine minutes, so I want to be on the ice and control my emotions. It’s a tough building to do that, it’s one of the best building in the NHL for a reason, it’s loud, the fans are passionate, it’s one of those buildings you love to play in as a player, it’s stuff you’ll remember when your career is done, but you want to keep your emotions in check.

– Tom Wilson on why he skated away.

From then on, it was a different game. The Canadiens looked somewhat shaken up, and with under four minutes to go, Andrew Mangiapane unleashed a heavy wrister from the high slot that beat Dobes glove side.

Martin St-Louis pulled his goalie early on an offensive zone faceoff, and the Canadiens lost possession. This led to Duhaime getting his second in an empty net. Wilson added another one later, still in an empty cage, to give the Caps a 3-1 series lead.

The coach looked somewhat dejected after the game:

I feel bad for the group a bit; I don’t really know what to tell them. If you have some answers for me, let me know.

–

St-Louis looked more like a player than a coach for the first time this season when providing that answer. Asked why he didn’t know what to say to his players, he answered:

I don’t know…It’s hard…I’ll be careful with my words but, it’s hard to watch some of these calls. Tonight, the mandate was about embellishing.

–

Every morning, the GM meets with the person in charge of the referees and is told what the zebras will be trying to crack down on during the game. On Sunday morning, Kent Hughes was told the zebras would be trying to eradicate embellishment. Listening to the coach, he clearly felt like that wasn’t accomplished. One can imagine he was referring to the high-sticking call on Christian Dvorak, which infuriated the Bell Centre.

The Canadiens now have a few days to lick off their wounds before heading to Washington for game five which will be held on Wednesday night. 

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