WASHINGTON — The Washington Capitals cited the importance of putting in the work to put their struggles behind them. It wasn't pretty at times on Wednesday, but they did just that for a big two points against the Montreal Canadiens.

Alex Tuch scored twice and had an assist and Jordan Kyrou had a goal and assist as the Capitals hung on for a 5-4 win over the Canadiens.

Here are the takeaways:

The Capitals got strong showings from two key players at a big time with the team still reeling from Pierre-Luc Dubois' absence, as Jordan Kyrou and Alex Tuch both had big games to help lead D.C. to a huge two hpoints.

With the Capitals trailing 1-0 early, Kyrou, at the tailend of a power play attempt, stormed up ice and stuck with a bouncing puck before cutting to the middle and firing a shot past Jakub Dobes to even the score.

Kyrou later assisted on Ivan Miroshnichenko's power play goal to even the game at 2 going into the second after lane Hutson had made it 2-1.

It marked his first multi-point game with D.C.

Then, it was Tuch's turn to score. The 30-year-old took away the puck on the penalty kill and went on a 2-on-1 shorthanded, calling his own number for his fourth goal of the season. Later, he'd ice the win with his second goal of the game.

The new-look lines also worked well, as Tuch worked well with Dylan Strome and Kyrou at 5-on-5 with Pierre-Luc Dubois still out. Tom Wilson added a spark to a line with Aliaksei Protas and Justin Sourdif, and Ilya Protas bounced back with two assists as he played with Alex Ovechkin and Ivan Miroshnichenko.

The Capitals also had another big game on the backend from Justin Holl, who is drawing in after his call-up with Matt Roy still on the shelf.

Holl scored his second goal in as many games in the third, breaking the tie with just over seven minutes ago to give D.C. the lead with the game-winning goal.

He also looked solid on the backend and continues to impress.

The Capitals still have to clean up some areas of their game, as they surrendered a late power-play goal to Nick Suzuki and saw some defensive errors work against them.

However, they were able to shut things down and hold on for the win.

Charlie Lindgren made a handful of big stops, and ended the night with 25 saves on 29 shots.

That said, there are still areas for D.C. to cleanup, including defensive reads in front, among other things.