First period
- Mike Matheson gets the game’s first shot by driving to the net, so it’s already a better start than last game.
- Josh Anderson gets sent in on a breakaway but pushes the puck too far ahead and has little room to make a deke when he catches back up to it. Montreal’s speed is proving difficult for the Penguins to deal with.
- Cole Caufield flies down the wing, takes a pass from Nick Suzuki, and rips a shot far-side for his first goal of the season.
- Martin St-Louis is going over with something on the iPad with Caufield. I wonder if they’re looking at his breakout play from the defensive zone that led to the goal.
- The Canadiens are playing really solid hockey at the moment. Every player is having a strong start.
- There is a bit of hesitation for the blue-liners to step up at the blue line, but most of them have to mobility to quickly move up when it kicks in that need to deny the entry. So far the Penguins have carried the puck into the zone on about two occasions.
- Jake Evans and Anderson just skate right past the Penguins’ defence on a two-on-one.
- Jayden Struble just made the same move Arber Xhekaj had last game, pinned on the boards on his forehand and sliding the puck across his body to escape on his backhand. I think that might be a new technique the defence has worked on to break pressure.
- With eight minutes to go, the Penguins get some offensive-zone time for the first time in the period.
- Mike Matheson tries to ride Crosby into the Canadiens bench as he goes off for a change. Crosby responds with a flurry of punches to Matheson. Only Matheson is going to the box, for interference.
- Evgeni Malkin scores on the power play, and Matheson, who was already upset at Crosby getting off without a penalty is probably more angry now.
- For 12 minutes, we saw what the new system looks like when it’s executed by all 18 skaters. Montreal let up just a bit to allow the Penguins a bit of zone time, which led to the penalty, which led to the goal.
- I think the refs know that they should have called Crosby, because they just called Rickard Rakell for skating into the crease and making high contact with Jakub Dobeš.
- The Penguins are starting to break through with multiple attackers going to the net. Dobeš is having a hard time determining where the eventual shot is going to come from.
- Montreal gets one final chance as the period comes to a close, but Nick Suzuki’s shot goes off Arturs Silovs and then the post.
- The game is being played about the opposite to the Habs’ season-opener, with them control the first half of the period and Pittsburgh largely holding the puck in the final minutes.
Second period
- Matheson doesn’t stand up at the blue line and allows Declan Carlile to move in uncontested. It was a relatively weak shot Carlile ended up taking from the high slot, but it fooled Dobeš to put the Penguins in the lead.
- Suzuki gets sent in on a breakaway, but Silovs makes another big stop.
- Noah Dobson gets beat around the back of the net and makes a last-ditch effort to shove Egor Chinakhov off-balance, tripping him instead. A Penguins power play that has already scored tonight, and three times this season, goes back to work.
- The crowd is getting impatient with the power play, wanting a shot, but Montreal is defending all the lanes perfectly.
- Xhekaj tosses the puck up the middle of the ice on an attempted breakout and it gets picked off. About 20 seconds of mad scrambling around the crease later, it’s 3-1 Pittsburgh.
- Juraj Slafkovský chases down his man and strips the puck inside the offensive zone. He sets up Alex Newhook right in the slot, but Silovs proves better on this occasion as well.
- Montreal follows up with a good top-line shift as they finally get some sustained pressure in the second period.
- Mike Matheson mishandles a puck, gets pressure by Chinakhov, and decides to shoot it anyway. It’s immediately blocked, turned into a two-on-one, and becomes Pittsburgh’s fourth goal. Matheson is having a terrible night.
- Pittsburgh gets another power play as the Canadiens tried to play with six skaters.
- 5-1 Penguins.
- Suzuki bowls through Pittsburgh’s formation to get into the zone. He attempts to pass the puck to Caufield and has it come back to him, so he continues on to chip it on his backhand over Silovs to give Montreal a second goal.
- The goal was about the only good part of that frame, one of the worst the Canadiens have played in recent memory.
- Nothing to do now but work to correct the things that went catastrophically wrong during the middle 20 minutes.
Third period
- Suzuki and Hutson come out determined in the third period period to get the Habs back in it. They work the puck around for a chance from the captain, but he hits iron for the second time.
- The Penguins are playing a conservative style to protect their three-goal lead. Can the Canadiens take advantage of that?
- Caufield can. He keeps the puck in the offensive zone, and ends up with it back in the slot to score his second goal of the night.
- Pittsburgh just takes over a shift with the second line and Xhekaj-Struble pairing on the ice, and Chinakhov is freed to pull the puck across Dobeš and tuck it in.
- Those players get bailed out by Evgeni Malkin being offside as he entered the zone without holding the puck, so it’s back to just a two-goal deficit.
- Alexandre Texier gets a pass at the side of the net from Matheson, but takes the extra second too long that allows Silovs to get his blocker over to deny a goal.
- Pittsburgh is planning to ice the puck for the final 13 minutes it seems.
- Samuel Girard hits the brakes as Anderson is heading toward the puck on the end boards, and Anderson gets his hand on his shoulder to get around the defenceman. The pressure is broken by the latest Penguins power play.
- Montreal kills it off to maintain at least a chance at a comeback.
- Suzuki has his feet knocked out from under him by Malkin, but that’s not a penalty.
- Montreal has had the puck most of the period, but can’t turn it into many shots.
- The Habs get a late power play on one of the weakest infractions the Penguins have committed in the period.
- The top unit really compressed the zone ad had several shots, but Silovs stopped the only one that came to him.
- Shortly after the power play expires, Chris Krieder scores his first goal in a Canadiens jersey to make it 5-4 with about a minute to play.
- I take just over two seconds for the Habs to find the game-tying play, a cross-crease pass from Suzuki to Demidov, who scores from a sharp angle.
- That’s a hard-earned point by the Canadiens, who can thank the Penguins for playing so conservatively in the third period.
- So apparently they can do more than correct things. It’s very early, but we can put a star beside this result.
Overtime
- Montreal has a couple of attempts with the opening possession, but misses two shots wide.
- The pressure from Slafkovský and Demidov comes to a sudden end when Demidov’s stick snaps behind the Penguins’ net.
- Demidov goes to change, but the player coming on doesn’t read that a two-on-one is developing and doesn’t immediately get on defence. Malkin manages to stay onside this time, and sets up Tommy Novak for the winning goal.
- It’s hard to be disappointed with the final result over where the Canadiens were to begin the third. It was a great comeback effort from the tip players.
- Things will need to be tightened up significantly for Tuesday, however, in a rematch of the Eastern Conference Final that could whip up a playoff atmosphere in the Bell Centre home-opener.
EOTP 3 Stars
3) Into the team goal lead where he belongs
2) Chances aplenty, just needed some more execution on both sides of the puck
1) RIP
