The Washington Capitals needed to come from behind yet again. They needed heroics from their goaltender. They needed a buzzer-beating empty-net goal from forward Connor McMichael to finally take a breath.

But it was enough Wednesday night at Capital One Arena for Washington to beat the Montreal Canadiens, 3-1, and take a 2-0 lead in the first-round Stanley Cup playoff series. The Capitals have not had a 2-0 series lead since the first round against Carolina in 2019. Game 3 is Friday night in Montreal.

Both teams went back to the same netminder who started Game 1. Logan Thompson stopped 25 of 26 for Washington and Samuel Montembeault stopped 29 of 31 for Montreal.

After the physical, intense start to Game 1, the second game began a bit more subdued. There were still a handful of significant hits, but they weren’t quite as bone-crushing as they were two nights earlier. The two teams combined for just 13 shots on goal in the opening 20 minutes — nine for Washington and four for Montreal.

The energy slowly drew out of the building, with a dearth of scoring chances and few reasons for the fans to rise to their feet. A nervous sort of tension started to take the place of excitement as the Capitals remained tied with the Canadiens into the beginning of the second period, as is often the case when the heavy favorite lets the underdog keep hanging around.

Those nerves were validated just 1:16 into the middle frame when Christian Dvorak slipped a loose puck under Thompson’s pad to give Montreal its first lead of the series. But Washington’s league-leading 25 comeback wins in the regular season trained the Capitals not to panic when trailing by a goal — and they didn’t.

Center Nic Dowd’s line, often Washington’s stabilizing force, came over the boards just under two minutes after Dvorak’s tally. They immediately worked the puck into the offensive zone and put Montreal under siege, which laid the foundation for McMichael’s equalizer at the 3:47 mark.

It was a fluky bounce — McMichael’s backhander at the side of the net deflected off Canadiens defenseman Jayden Struble and went past Montembeault — but the work of Dowd’s line put Washington in a position to get a bounce like that one.

And exactly 60 seconds later, center Dylan Strome scored off his own rebound to give the Capitals the lead. Winger Anthony Beauvillier, who had two points in the Game 1 overtime win, caught a cross-ice feed from rookie winger Ryan Leonard and tapped it to Strome coming down the slot. Strome appeared to intentionally shoot the puck off Montembeault’s pad, allowing himself to have a tap-in on the rebound.

From there, the Capitals more closely resembled the dominant force they were in the first two periods of Game 1. But two power plays for the Canadiens gave Montreal life and kept Washington from being able to extend its lead any further, even as the Capitals killed both penalties. Montembeault’s performance in net also kept the lead from extending; he stopped 16 of the 18 shots he faced in the period.

The first penalty, on defenseman Matt Roy for cross-checking, came just 21 seconds after Strome’s go-ahead goal. Dowd and defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk worked together on a shorthanded rush, but Dowd’s shot was stopped by Montembeault, and winger Tom Wilson put his own shorthanded look wide later in the kill.

Thompson only had to make one save on the second penalty kill, which took up most of the final two minutes of the frame after Dowd went off for interference with 2:19 left to play in the period. With three seconds left in the period, Alex Newhook missed a tip attempt just high over the crossbar, keeping the Canadiens’ deficit at one heading into the third period.

Montreal, perhaps buoyed by the memories from staging a two-goal comeback to force overtime in Game 1, recorded the first three shots on goal of the third period and started to carry spurts of momentum. Winger Andrew Mangiapane and defenseman Rasmus Sandin had a chance off the rush early in the period to make it 3-1, but Mangiapane’s shot off Montembeault’s pad just missed Sandin waiting for the rebound.

Then Thompson went into hero mode. A full-extension glove save on Jake Evans at the back post that required him to dive across his crease, a breakaway save on Josh Anderson and a sharp cover of the puck through traffic in quick succession sent chants of “LT! LT! LT!” raining down from every corner of the building.

Washington struggled to get the puck out of the defensive zone, often turning the puck over before reaching the Mon or handing it back to Montreal in the neutral zone.

Another heroic save from Thompson arrived with just over four minutes left, somehow getting his pad on a point shot from Alexandre Carrier that deflected on its way toward him.

The Canadiens pulled Montembeault for a six-on-five advantage with just over two minutes left to play. Thompson rose up for a shoulder shrug save with less than a minute, then watched his skaters hang on for dear life as they tried to clear the puck.

They finally did, with 15 seconds left to play, and McMichael beat the buzzer into the empty net to seal the win.