{"id":511243,"date":"2026-03-01T06:29:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T06:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/511243\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T06:29:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T06:29:10","slug":"cole-caufield-scores-twice-as-montreal-canadiens-crush-washington-capitals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/511243\/","title":{"rendered":"Cole Caufield scores twice as Montreal Canadiens crush Washington Capitals"},"content":{"rendered":"

MONTREAL \u2014 Cole Caufield<\/a> scored a pair of first-period goals to help propel the Montreal Canadiens<\/a> to a 6-2 win over the Washington Capitals<\/a> on Saturday night at the Bell Centre.<\/p>\n

Caufield has a team-high 35 goals on the season, 15 of which have been scored on a Saturday night.<\/p>\n

Mike Matheson<\/a> and Kirby Dach<\/a> scored goals in the second period for Montreal (33-17-9), which has recorded at least a point in seven consecutive games (5-0-2).<\/p>\n

Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki<\/a> and Jake Evans<\/a> added empty-net goals in the third. Suzuki also had two assists in the winning effort.<\/p>\n

Jakub Dobes<\/a> made 27 saves as he improved his record to 9-0-2 over his last 11 games. The rookie goaltender has not lost a game in regulation since a 6-1 defeat to the Tampa Bay Lightning<\/a> on Dec. 9.<\/p>\n

Alex Ovechkin<\/a> scored twice for the Capitals (31-24-7), who had their three-game win streak snapped.<\/p>\n

The Capitals captain has scored 44 goals and recorded 76 points in just 63 career matchups against the Canadiens. The goals also allowed the NHL\u2019s all-time leading goal scorer to run his point streak at the Bell Centre to eight games, a streak dating back to November 2018.<\/p>\n

Charlie Lindgren<\/a> stopped 19 shots in his first start since Jan. 29 for the Capitals. The Lakeville, Minn., native, who began his career with the Canadiens, has given up at least three goals in each of his last nine appearances in goal.<\/p>\n

TAKEAWAYS<\/p>\n

Capitals: Washington\u2019s ongoing struggles on the power play were evident again. The team failed to capitalize on each of its four opportunities while up a man. The Capitals entered play Saturday 31st overall in the NHL in power-play efficiency.<\/p>\n

Canadiens: The Bell Centre remains a tough stop for visiting teams as Montreal improved to 10-3-1 in its last 14 home games.<\/p>\n

KEY MOMENT<\/p>\n

It took all of 30 seconds for the Canadiens to find the back of the net, marking the fastest game-opening goal scored by Montreal this season. Jakob Chychrun<\/a>\u2019s point shot was blocked by Caufield, resulting in a breakaway for the forward. His snap shot beat Lindgren to the glove side.<\/p>\n

KEY STAT<\/p>\n

Caufield\u2019s goals were his 20th and 21st go-ahead tallies of the season, moving him past Guy Lafleur<\/a> (20 in 1977-78) for the most in a single season in franchise history. He also leads the NHL in that department this year, sitting seven ahead of both Vegas\u2019s Jack Eichel<\/a> and Boston\u2019s Morgan Geekie<\/a>.<\/p>\n

UP NEXT<\/p>\n

Capitals: Host the Utah Mammoth<\/a> on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Canadiens: Visit the San Jose Sharks<\/a> on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 28, 2026.<\/p>\n

Jordan Stoopler, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MONTREAL \u2014 Cole Caufield scored a pair of first-period goals to help propel the Montreal Canadiens to a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":511244,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-511243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=511243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511243\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/511244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}