When you listen to a game on the radio, all you have is the noise. And in Montreal on Sunday night, stimulated by two dramatic events late in the second period, the Habs' arena swelled to the point of deafening, with a force that made me believe the home team might really have the power to knock out the No. 1 seed in the East. But after a giddy intermission under the banner of a 2-1 score, Canadiens fans watched—and I listened—helplessly as the prospect of a tied series was ripped away by a ruthless and experienced Washington Capitals group that took the breaks the local boys couldn't.
First, the high point. With two minutes to go in the second and the score 1-1, a Capitals player was sent the box for one of several hits on both sides that got punished by the refs throughout a particularly physical game. But this wasn't just any player: This was the Greatest Goal Scorer Of All Time™, Alexander Ovechkin, who took the two for interference by trucking Jake Evans at the edge of the Caps' attacking zone. The Quebecois screams, shouts, and boos overwhelmed the announcement of the penalty, and for good reason. The newly crowned scoring king entering the sin bin for the first time in almost two months felt like an event in itself—the kind of rare, odd misstep that can doom a favorite in a tricky series.
Not long after they'd scored their first goal of the game, Montreal's momentum was only increasing. And then just 30 seconds into the power play, two of their crucial young talents hooked up for a one-timer. Lane Hutson, the defensive rookie who's mass-produced assists all year, found the 24-year-old golden boy Cole Caufield in the office that usually belongs to Ovi. Caufield's shot from the circle found its way past Logan Thompson. Try just listening to it, though: that staticky assault on your ears as something like 21,000 fanatics erupt with joyful surprise. Centre Bell holds more humanity than any other NHL barn, and it sounds like it.
It's easy for me to get sentimental. While the Canadiens objectively "deserve" to break the country's Cup drought less than any of their compatriots, there's still something special about Quebec's team succeeding at Quebec's sport with a bunch of youngsters who have shown such meaningful improvement this year. It's a bright-looking future in Montreal, symbolized by that goal, and the kind of happiness it inspired isn't hard for me to enjoy from afar.
Then the Caps put local joy on hold, possibly for the long term. A crushing Tom Wilson hit led to a weird bouncy-ball equalizer in the third, and despite Montreal creating a couple of legit chances to take back the lead, it was the Capitals who broke through with a smoothly executed design that took the puck from behind their own net and into the Habs' in just a few seconds. The contrasting quiet that follows this goal tells you as much as the roar following Caufield's. The crowd wouldn't get a chance to cheer again. The Caps won, 5-2, to take a 3-1 lead back to Washington.
The goal for the Canadiens now is straightforward: Earn a Game 6 back in front of their home crowd. It won't be easy or pleasant, because none of these games have been, but the reward would be sweet. I don't know what it's like to hear that kind of noise from on the ice, knowing it's all for you. But if it were me stepping onto the rink in Washington on Wednesday, I think the sound of the Caufield goal would still be ringing in my ears, pushing me to do everything I could to bring it back.
