After blowing the lead on Wednesday in Seattle, the Habs looked to get back into the win column as they hosted Florida on Saturday. It was a low-chance battle but one that Montreal came out victorious in, winning 3-1.
Martin St. Louis made a pair of lineup changes for this one. In goal, Samuel Montembeault got the start after Jakub Dobes played against the Kraken. Meanwhile, up front, Joel Armia returned after missing Wednesday’s game with an upper-body injury; he took the place of Michael Pezzetta. The team lined up as follows:
Caufield – Suzuki – Slafkovsky
Roy – Newhook – Laine
Anderson – Dvorak – Gallagher
Heineman – Evans – Armia
Matheson – Carrier
Struble – Hutson
Xhekaj – Savard
1) Montreal got off to a good start and forced some early Florida turnovers to get their transition game going. That transition game gave them an early power play when Mackie Samoskevich slashed Josh Anderson. Patrik Laine was a little rusty early on, mishandling the puck and then firing wide but they wasted little time getting it back to him and even with it not being a one-timer, he was able to fire it past Sergei Bobrovsky to open the scoring.
2) The transition play helped get them another man advantage just past the midway point of the frame when Sam Bennett went off for high sticking. This time, it was the second unit who looked to get the job done as Alex Newhook and Nick Suzuki (who’s double-shifting on power plays) executed a perfect give-and-go with the captain sending a pass to the side for Newhook who lifted it past Bobrovsky to make it 2-0. Or so we thought. Florida challenged for goalie interference and it was quickly called back.
3) I know there’s a thought out there that the contact from Brendan Gallagher on Bobrovsky was somewhat minimal and that it wasn’t really goalie interference. But Gallagher skated into the crease and bumped him, causing him to drop his stick just before the shot. At a minimum, that’s incidental contact which in itself was enough to call it back. But Bobrovsky losing his stick on the play made it pretty much an automatic.
4) The Canadiens continued to put pressure on Florida and it kept working. With a little over four minutes left in the first, they helped cause another one. Some pressure on Aleksander Barkov caused him to rush a pass up the middle to Seth Jones. Jones could only get a stick on it, deflecting it instead to Juraj Slafkovsky. He sent a quick feed to Caufield in front of the net but instead of shooting from in tight, he curled around and snuck it through Bobrovsky. Bobrovsky was clearly fooled by the fake and pulled himself out of position just enough for Caufield to get the opening to shoot through. As far as first periods go, that was one of Montreal’s best of the season.
5) The second period wasn’t as good which, frankly, wasn’t too surprising. Florida had the lone goal early with Mackie Samoskevich circling out front and beating Montembeault. But the most notable part of the play was a pick from Sam Bennett on Mike Matheson who was covering Samoskevich, freeing him up to get that shot off. A bit of tough luck on that one, that’s for sure.
6) One thing I noticed a lot in the first two periods was Montreal holding onto the puck a little too long, allowing Florida’s defenders or backcheckers just enough time to break up what could have been a scoring chance. It’s hard to be too critical of this as often that extra split second of patience can open up a scoring lane; it just wasn’t going that way for the Habs in this one.
7) Montreal got a late power play when Niko Mikkola hooked Laine with just over two minutes left. It looked like they were going to score when Laine’s shot squeaked through Bobrovsky to Slafkovsky. He had an open net but Gustav Forsling got a stick on it to keep it out. To make matters worse, Emil Heineman was called for interference on a pick play that saw Nico Sturm back into him. That one wasn’t much of a call, especially compared to the missed call on the Florida goal.
8) The Habs did a nice job killing off the carry-over power play against a Panthers man advantage that clicks at over 30% on the road. That set the stage for what was largely a very steady third period, albeit one that didn’t see them do much in the offensive zone. Fortunately, they didn’t need to.
9) Turnovers were the theme of the opening period for Florida and it was the final nail in the coffin for them in this one. With Gallagher pressuring, Bennett had to hurry his clearing attempt. It went right to David Savard and his shot went off Christian Dvorak’s stick, changing direction and beating Bobrovsky. It was Dvorak’s 100th career goal. Certainly not a highlight-reel tally but it was a huge one for the Habs.
10) The Panthers got a late power play when Dvorak was called for a high stick. This time, Florida – with the extra attacker – generated some solid pressure but Montembeault had his best sequence of the night to help kill it off and end any late chance of a comeback. With just 15 shots on goal, it was one of Montreal’s lowest outputs of the season but Florida only managed 22 in what was a pretty defensive-minded effort.
1st Star: Cole Caufield – He helped kickstart the play that set up Laine’s power play marker and, of course, his goal stood as the winner. Once again, Montreal’s top line was by far their best with Caufield being a big part of that.
Stats: 1 goal, 1 assist, +1 rating, 3 shots, 19:04 TOI
2nd Star: Samuel Montembeault – As I just noted, it wasn’t a high volume of shots for Montembeault with Florida’s only flurry coming late in the game. But that flurry helped get him this spot as it was a key moment and his positioning and rebound control were solid, helping make that crucial kill. Any time your goalie only allows one goal, he’s had a solid night.
Stats: 1 GA on 22 shots, 1.00 GAA, .954 SV%
3rd Star: Christian Dvorak – I could go with another member of the top line quite easily but I’ll pick Dvorak here. His insurance marker was a crucial one and at five-on-five, his line had a pretty effective game. Dvorak isn’t going to score enough to live up to the contract but games like this show he can still be a contributor.
Stats: 1 goal, +1 rating, 2 PIMS, 2 shots, 2 blocks, 14:25 TOI
