The Habs had their third afternoon game in four days on Tuesday in Vegas. They got off to a slow start but rallied in the second half, allowing them to pull off the comeback and win 3-2.
Martin St. Louis elected to stick with a winning lineup, meaning Jayden Struble and Michael Pezzetta continued their extended run of time in the press box. The rest of the team lined up as follows:
Caufield – Suzuki – Slafkovsky
Laine – Dach – Newhook
Anderson – Dvorak – Gallagher
Heineman – Evans – Armia
Hutson – Matheson
Guhle – Carrier
Xhekaj – Savard
1) Yesterday, I wrote about how the second line is going to be the difference-maker. When they’re on, good things happen. When they’re off, things don’t go quite so well and that’s what happened early on. A little over three minutes in, Kirby Dach sent a cross-ice feed in the offensive zone that wasn’t close to a Canadien, sending Vegas the other way. Keegan Kolesar carried it into the Montreal end before finding Tomas Hertl. Alex Newhook was attempting to cover Zach Whitecloud in transition but sagged off just long enough for Hertl to find the blueliner and he beat Samuel Montembeault to open the scoring.
2) The bulk of the opening frame resembled what many would call a solid road game. Montreal did well to limit the chances from the Golden Knights – one of the hottest teams in the league – and while they weren’t generating many of their own, they were right in it. It looked like they’d get to the room down one and while that wouldn’t have been a great outcome, it wouldn’t have been terrible either.
3) However, the five-on-five struggles from the second line continued. Patrik Laine turned it over in the defensive zone to Brett Howden. Dach then got lost in terms of determining who to cover, leaving Noah Hanifin wide open. The puck went to him and it was 2-0 with just 11 seconds left.
4) After a pretty quiet start to the second period, Christian Dvorak went off for a trip a little before the midway mark. It would be fair to suggest that the Canadiens survived this penalty kill. There was a goal post, one Grade A chance, and plenty of zone time but they managed to kill it off.
5) The successful kill seemed to give the Canadiens some life. After not managing much in the way of offensive threats to that point, Montreal started to get some more offensive zone time and started to get some shots on Adin Hill. When you compare it to a month ago when the Habs were wilting at the first sign of adversity, this was a promising sign of growth from this group.
6) Eventually, the top line got the visitors on the board. Juraj Slafkovsky had some good board play, intercepting a clearing attempt. He quickly set up Nick Suzuki but instead of the captain shooting, he found Cole Caufield who was lost in coverage and he quickly fired it home to make it a one-goal game with two and a half minutes left. That was Caufield’s 100th career NHL goal.
7) It’s a good thing that periods are 20 minutes, not 20 minutes and one second. Pavel Dorofeyev beat Montembeault just as the buzzer sounded but the green light was already on. It wasn’t a controversial no-goal call – the horn clearly went before the puck went in – but not by much. After a late goal made it a two-goal deficit in the first, that happening again might have been too much of a deflator to overcome.
8) But down by just one, the Habs kept pushing in the third and were rewarded for their efforts. Just before the eight-minute mark, David Savard sent a weak shot toward the net. Emil Heineman wasn’t able to get much of a shot off on the rebound but it was just enough to get up and over Hill to tie the game. Jake Evans has rightfully commanded a lot of attention when it comes to the fourth line’s success but Heineman has quietly been a key part of that as well.
9) Dach hasn’t had much go right this season. Offensively, he missed plenty of strong chances and defensively, well, it hasn’t been pretty. But puck luck tends to even out (to an extent) over time and Dach finally had one go his way. On a two-on-one with Laine, he tried to send a cross-ice feed to Laine. However, he got in way too tight to the net so there wasn’t much of an angle to work with. It didn’t matter. Instead, the pass went off Hill’s pad, through his legs, and in just past the midway mark. Not the prettiest of goals but I don’t think he or the Habs cared.
10) For the most part, the Habs did well to limit the Vegas attack as there weren’t a lot of high-end chances. But after some decent defence for most of the second half of the frame, the Golden Knights got two of their best chances of the game. Montembeault stopped a slot shot with around 15 seconds left, then made a bigger stop on the rebound off Brett Howden seconds later. That was just enough to allow the Habs to complete the impressive and improbable comeback.
1st Star: Lane Hutson – It might seem strange that I’m picking a player who wasn’t mentioned once to this point or didn’t record a point but I wanted to highlight a defenceman from the strong team effort. Hutson had a very sound defensive game, in terms of steady play in his own end and breaking up a couple of chances. Meanwhile, the puck was often in the Vegas end when he was on the ice, an even better way of defending. The points attract a lot of attention but for me, this is the type of game to get excited about, a solid two-way effort against a top team.
Stats: 0 points, +1 rating, 2 shots, 21:23 TOI
2nd Star: Cole Caufield – Montreal’s top line was by far their most dangerous in this game and any of them easily could have been mentioned here. But Caufield had the most shots and, of course, the key goal in the second period to get them back in it, paving the way for the comeback.
Stats: 1 goal, +1 rating, 4 shots, 2 hits, 15:12 TOI
3rd Star: Samuel Montembeault – I wouldn’t say that Vegas had a bunch of top chances that forced Montembeault to steal the game as he’s been asked to do a lot. But he made a bunch of key saves in the final 40 minutes to allow the Canadiens to eventually take the lead, then saved his best for last with the two stops in the dying seconds. That’s worthy of a third-star selection here.
Stats: 27 saves on 29 shots, 2.00 GAA, .931 SV%
