Tom Wilson is no stranger to changing games with his physicality, particularly against the Montreal Canadiens. Friday night’s 8-4 win for Wilson and the Capitals was no different.

Shortly after the Canadiens had cut down the Capitals’ first two-goal lead of the game, Wilson’s line had the Habs hemmed in their own zone with just over five minutes left in the second period. Wilson then trucked Montreal’s Jake Evans along the boards, creating a gap in coverage for Jakob Chychrun to expose and blast home a shot that put the Caps back ahead by two.

Wilson’s body check was one of many examples in the game of the Capitals battling back against a young Canadiens team trying to shift the tide in front of a loud Bell Centre.

“All these different momentum swings through the game, and you know you’re going to face those when you go on the road, and you’re going to have to work your way through those,” head coach Spencer Carbery said postgame. “You’re going to lose momentum, you’re going to give up a goal, [but] how do you respond? I think we continued through the night to respond when, all of a sudden, the building came alive, and we lost momentum.”

Wilson’s hit, ruled clean by on-ice officials and the NHL’s Department of Player Safety, injured Evans and took him out of the game. He played 12:19 of ice time in the game, taking just one more short shift after the Wilson hit.

Wilson also laid the boom on Evans after his typical willing combatant on the Canadiens, forward Josh Anderson, got into some rough stuff with Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin during the first period. Wilson and Anderson tried to fight each other on the Caps’ bench last April.

Wilson did not factor in on the scoresheet of any of the Capitals’ eight goals in Thursday’s game, but again showed how he can impact the outcome without denting the twine. In last spring’s first-round playoff series against the Canadiens, he did something similar in Game 4 to help push the Caps out to a commanding 3-1 series lead.

The 31-year-old forward laid a crunching body check on Canadiens defenseman Alexandre Carrier that led directly to a game-tying goal by Brandon Duhaime. As Carrier looked to move the puck up the ice, Wilson caught the defender unaware, driving his shoulder into the Habs’ rearguard.

After the huge hit, the Capitals rattled off three straight goals, including one by Wilson, to take Game 4 by a 5-2 final score. They would then wrap the series up in Game 5 on home ice.

“He does it all for us: hits, goals, fights,” Duhaime said then. “He just is a true leader for us, and he truly does it all.”

This season, Wilson is tied for the Capitals’ team lead in scoring with 20 points (11g, 9a) through 21 games. His 56 hits are the most on the team — 15 more than Duhaime (41), who ranks second.