Aliaksei Protas carried the puck into the Vancouver zone, circled around the back of the net and passed to Dubois, who skated down the slot and beat Kevin Lankinen.
“That was just all ‘Pro,’” Dubois said. “I just had to come down and score. Lars [Eller] gave me a really good look before and I missed that one. It was a really nice play by Pro.”
Logan Thompson made 30 saves for the Capitals (27-10-4), who extended their point streak to five games (3-0-2) and their home point streak to nine (7-0-2).
“I think it’s been our MO all year, just finding a way,” Thompson said. “It’s not going to be easy every night and we haven’t had our best of games these last couple, but we’re getting points and in the end that’s going to go a long way.”
Washington forward Alex Ovechkin was held off the score sheet and remains 23 goals shy of passing Wayne Gretzky (894) for the most in NHL history.
Conor Garland scored for the Canucks (18-12-10), who are 1-2-3 in their past six games. Lankinen made 16 saves.
“We played pretty detailed, tonight, I thought,” Garland said. “Obviously, they have a terrific goalie. We had a great goalie as well. Nice battle by them. Just, what was it, 40 seconds left? Tough to give that one up and hang him out to dry there, but it is what it is.”
The Capitals took a 1-0 lead with 33 seconds remaining in the first period. Dubois knocked down the rebound of Matt Roy’s shot at the left of the crease and lifted a backhand over Lankinen’s left pad from in front.
Thompson made five saves in 21 seconds beginning at 17:28 of the second period to preserve the lead.
Garland tied it 1-1 on the power play with 37 seconds left in the period, one-timing a rebound from the right side of the net.
“We spent a couple days really evaluating our team a little bit and how we want to play, and I thought everybody kind of bought into how we have to play with our team right now, the identity,” Vancouver coach Rick Tocchet said. “So, I thought there was a lot of guys doing a lot of good things.”
Vancouver outshot Washington 21-5 in the second.
“Thought the first period was really good, liked a lot of what we did,” Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said. “Second period we got away from it. Got a little bit sloppy with some pucks and fed their transition. So we got back on our heels. We get out of it 1-1.”
NOTES: Dubois has six points (two goals, four assists) in a five-game point streak. … Thompson extended his home point streak to seven games (6-0-1), the longest run by a Capitals goaltender since Ilya Samsonov in 2021-22 (also 6-0-1). … Roy played 20:59 and had an assist in the defenseman’s 400th NHL game. … Vancouver forward Quinn Hughes (assist) has 11 points (one goal, 10 assists) in his past seven games. … Canucks forward Elias Pettersson, a game-time decision, missed a sixth straight game because of an upper-body injury.
