The last time the Montreal Canadiens took on the Vegas Golden Knights, they were schooled. Today though, they were hoping to ride the momentum from their Florida sweep to pull a rabbit out of their hat and stop the red hot Knights.
The Habs didn’t play badly in the first, but the Knights are the kind of team that will make you pay every time you make a mistake. After a couple of minutes of play, the Canadiens had the puck in the offensive zone and Kirby Dach attempted a cross zone pass that landed right on Keegan Kolesar’s stick. He charged ahead and when he entered the zone David Savard and Arber Xhekaj got confused in their coverage which completely opened a side, and Zach Whitecloud put Vegas up by one.
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Montreal was able to shake it off though. After five minutes and a half of play, Bruce Cassidy’s men had seven shots on goal and they wouldn’t get another one until there was only a few seconds left in the frame. Unfortunately, that one got by Montembeault as well. Once more, the second line was on the ice for the goal, but this time is was Patrik Laine who committed the turnover.
The Sainte-Flanelle would have deserved better, they only committed four giveaways to Vegas’ eight, but goals win games, finish is essential. Montreal managed to cauterize the wound in the second, and even though they didn’t generate much in terms of attack with only five shots on goals, they still managed to cut Vegas’ lead in half.
The first line’s efficient forechecking paid off and when Vegas turned the puck over it quickly went from Juraj Slafkovsky to Nick Suzuki and then, with a no look pass, the captain found his sidekick in space right by the net. Cole Caufield one-timed the puck past Adin Hill, breaking the ice for the Canadiens and grabbing the 100th goal of his career, beating Joel Armia to the feat since the Finnish veteran also has 99 career goals.
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Montembeault received another eight shots in the middle frame, but was able to hold the door (as they would say in Game of Thrones). In the final period, the Canadiens progressively controlled play, just under eight minutes in, Emil Heineman battled in front of the net and was able to score on a rebound.
Then, just over 2 minutes later, Dach and Laine benefitted from Josh Anderson’s hard work and found themselves on a two on one. Dach tried to feed his teammate, but the puck deflected and he scored the go-ahead goal. The lamplighter…