They say things come in threes, and the Montreal Canadiens are going to start to believe that applies to terrible Tuesdays. On Oct. 22, they were schooled 7-2 by the New York Rangers, and on Oct. 29, they were outclassed 8-2 by the Seattle Kraken, but tonight, they at least battled hard before conceding the win to the Calgary Flames.
In the last two games, the Canadiens had come out in a very careful manner, so focused on not making any mistake in their own territory that they had all but forgotten there was an offensive zone. Tonight, it wasn't the case.
In the first frame, the Canadiens attacked whenever they could and they weren't picky about their shots either, whenever they saw the net, they took a shot keeping Dustin Wolf as busy as could be. The Flames netminder faced 15 shots and four power play minutes.
The Habs didn't score, but they were able to apply a lot of pressure in the offensive zone, they even managed a full change while attacking. It wasn't perfect, they were a couple of occasions where they lost the puck which led to an odd-man rush and a breakaway, but Samuel Montembeault stood tall and looked in full control.
The new lines concocted by Martin St-Louis also had a good first 20 minutes, the Alex Newhook, Jake Evans and Juraj Slafkovsky line got a golden opportunity but Newhook was stopped in close. Christian Dvorak seemed energized playing alongside Brendan Gallagher and Josh Anderson, he also won four of his five faceoff, second only to Evans who won his three. Clearly, they paid attention to Marc Bureau's advice on Monday.
As is too often the case though, after a great start, for some reason, the Canadiens cannot keep the same level of effort up. After shooting 15 times in the first frame, Montreal could only test Wolf five times in the middle one.
Calgary dominated the first five minutes of the stanza and Connor Zary was able to whack a free puck in the slot to give them a 1-0 lead. For much of the rest of the frame, the Flames were in control and the Canadiens struggled to get any kind of momentum going.
On Montreal's third power play of the game, after the first man-advantage unit was unable to beat Wolf, the second wave broke through. Gallagher scored his fifth goal of the season and the 223rd of his career, which allowed him to tie Peter Mahovlich as the 20th most prolific goal scorer with the Canadiens. The alternate captain is now only two goals away from Stephane Richer in 19th place.
If the Canadiens' effort was disappointing in the second period, Montembeault's wasn't, he made some very important saves to keep his team behind by just one, and this is the kind of performance which could help build the goaltender's confidence back up.
With 20 minutes to go in regulation, both teams had everything to play for. When Lane Hutson took a hooking call, the penalty killers rolled up their sleeves and decided that mistake wouldn’t be costly. Not only did they kill it, but they also got a shorthanded goal when Evans found Armia with a perfect feed on an odd-man rush.
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Minutes later, Montreal thought they had put the game away when Gallagher found the back of the net again, but the goal was called off for offside. With less than three minutes left to play, the Flames were able to tie up the score and once again, the opponent’s goal seemed to unsettle the Canadiens, there’s a smell of panic when Montreal gives up and goal and that’s never a good sign.
St-Louis elected to start the overtime period with Suzuki and Dvorak, a decision aimed at winning the faceoff, but it didn’t go that way. While Dvorak did win the faceoff and tie up his man, Suzuki lost his stick in a battle and that's all it took for Matt Coronato to fire off the game-winning goal.
Speaking with the media after the game, the coach explained that even though his team didn't throw up over itself tonight, the result still made him a bit nauseous. The bench boss loved his team's first period, calling it their best so far, but unfortunately, they just couldn't separate themselves on the scoreboard.
Asked about how he would explain Gallagher's longevity, St-Louis explained:
As for what makes him an offensive threat, he could laugh and repeat that he's a combative warrior, before also adding that he's a smart player who has bought in the team's offensive concepts.
Interestingly, when the pilot was asked if he saw Dach as a winger or a center, he wouldn't commit. He did however say that if he had been asked 13 months ago, he would have said he was a center, until he's back to where he was though, he doesn't think it's fair to make a call one way or another.
It's worth mentioning Arber Xhekaj had a solid game tonight, he only applied one hit, but his decision making was much improved. When he was retrieving the puck, he was taking his time to work out the best course of action, he didn't rush his play and took the time to make the right one. He also managed to kill a couple of scoring chances, including one that came from a miscommunication between Jayden Struble and Dach.
The Canadiens will be back in action on Thursday night when they'll take on the New Jersey Devils, before heading to Toronto for a Saturday night tilt with the Maple Leafs who could be without their captain and a matinee in Buffalo on Monday.
