The Canadiens continue to provide good battles to some of the NHL’s best teams and coach Martin St-Louis is encouraged by these performances, even if the victories do not follow with as much consistency.
John Tavares took advantage of a lucky jump to break the deadlock in the third period and the Toronto Maple Leafs beat Montreal 3-2 on Saturday night at the Bell Centre.
The day after the trade period ended, the Canadiens’ players played with aplomb. The day before, general manager Kent Hughes had been conservative, trading only veteran goaltender Jake Allen in hopes of keeping a good group of leaders to surround his young core.
The Maple Leafs, however, had a little more luck and were able to leave Montreal with two more points in the bank.
“Yes, they won, but we didn’t get beat,” St. Louis said. “We played a good game.”
“I’ve been really encouraged for about three weeks or a month by the commitment of the players, their attitude, their responses,” he added. “We’re not perfect, but we’re combative. We enjoy coming to the rink and we don’t get lost in the results.”
Mike Matheson had a goal and an assist, while Alex Newhook also scored for the Canadiens (24-30-10), who are 4-9-2 since the All-Star break. Juraj Slafkovsky had two assists and Samuel Montembeault stopped 24 shots.
“We did a great job in our zone and didn’t give up much,” Montembeault said. “There was one goal that came off a bounce in the neutral zone and another one that came off a turnover.”
“It’s frustrating to lose because of a bad bounce,” he added of the game-winner. “Normally, the puck would have ended up in the corner of the rink and we wouldn’t have even talked about it.”
Max Domi had a goal and an assist, while Bobby McMann was the other scorer for the Maple Leafs (37-19-8). Ilya Samsonov made 29 saves.
Forward Michael Pezzetta was inserted into the Canadiens’ lineup. Jesse Ylönen gave up his place.
The Maple Leafs were without forward Mitch Marner, who was out with a lower-body injury.
Acquired before the end of the trade period, defenseman Joel Edmundson and forward Connor Dewar played their first game with the Maple Leafs.
The Canadiens will play their next game on Tuesday, when the Columbus Blue Jackets will be the visitors at the Bell Centre.
A Close Battle
Matheson opened the scoring just 38 seconds into the first period. The Canadiens defenseman finished off a nice sequence started by Slafkovsky and Cole Caufield. Samsonov was caught off-guard and Matheson simply had to push the puck into a gaping net.
The first period was interrupted for about 10 minutes when a portion of the glass in the visitors’ penalty box door broke. Once play resumed, Samsonov had to be vigilant to keep the Maple Leafs in the game.
At the other end of the ice, Montembeault made his best save of the period at the expense of William Nylander, who was loading his net.
McMann tied the game 1-1 with a goal 39 seconds into the second period.
Canadiens defenseman Arber Xhekaj was guilty of a turnover at the blue line, allowing McMann to orchestrate a two-on-one attack. The Maple Leafs forward beat Montembeault with a quick shot on the shield side.
Anderson came close to responding about a minute later, but his shot hit the post.
Domi gave the Maple Leafs the lead with 1:19 left in the second period. He was able to escape on a long feed from Calle Jarnkrok after a Brendan Gallagher turnover in the visitors’ zone. His shot just sailed through Montembeault’s equipment.
Newhook got everyone back to square one with a power-play goal 5:05 into the final period. He was able to get to the net with the puck and caught Samsonov on the shield side.
Tavares gave the visitors the lead again with 6:46 left. Montembeault stopped a hard shot from Jake McCabe. However, the rebound hit Tavares before it crossed the goal line.
The Tricolore obtained a power play at the end of the third period, but Samsonov resisted the final attacks of the local club.
