First period
- Tanner Pearson takes an interference penalty six seconds in. Add that to the two minors he took last game, and it’s been a rough return from the bye week for him.
- A long review is done to determine if the Stars scored, but the Samuel Montembeault squeezed the puck on the goal line with the top of his blocker.
- The crowd gets loud anticipating a breakaway for Alex Newhook, but it gets closed down before he can get a good shot away.
- A sequence of strong play coming out of the penalty kill results in a Ryan Suter penalty.
- Newhook and Juraj Slafkovsky get some great chances, but are turned aside from Jake Oettinger. Great movement on the power play, but, more importantly, intentional movement with the aim of scoring a goal, which wasn’t the case early in the season.
- I think it’s fair to say that Newhook is an upgrade on Pearson already.
- The top line comes out again and looks like it’s on another power play. I’m starting to see why the Stars have been allowing four or five goals per game.
- The fourth line is also playing quite well. Michael Pezzetta is winning most of his battles versus Suter and getting some zone time for his trio.
- We’ve seen some lethargic afternoon games from the Canadiens as they’re not used to playing them, but this isn’t one of them. a very entertaining game so far.
Second period
- Cole Caufield banks the puck off the boards where Nick Suzuki will be first to skate onto it. The captain moves into the offensive zone down the right side, and beats Oettinger far-side. That’s an 11-game point streak for Caufield, who is putting in another excellent game.
- Rafaël Harvey-Pinard runs into Joel Armia in the neutral and has the big winger fall on him, bending his knee awkwardly. Both players appear to be in rough shape after the collision.
- Any plan to spread out minutes evenly among four lines has just gone out the window.
- To add insult to injury, the Stars score seconds later. Caufield loses his man, Thomas Harley, and the defenceman can walk in all along to score.
- Twenty-four seconds later the Stars have the lead as Tyler Seguin scores.
- Montreal is looking a bit dazed by the sudden shift in this game.
- Now the Habs have a penalty to kill on a too-many-men call.
- They kill if off and start to find their legs again.
- They’re flirting with disaster as Mike Matheson is off to the box for high-sticking. Brandon Gignac comes out to win the faceoff on the penalty kill.
- Jason Robertson knocks the puck in, but did so from above the crossbar, so that won’t count.
- Jake Evans kills off 15 seconds of the penalty by playing the puck from the offensive zone back to his defenceman, then nearly connects with Armia for a short-handed attempt.
- The good PK is rewarded with a power play right afterward. A chance to Caufield to add to his offensive run.
- “Good clean win back to Matheson but he bobbled it.”
- Gignac is getting power-play time as well. Playing every situation to show what he can do.
- That second unit isn’t one you want on the ice without a skater advantage, however. Seguin scores for a second time in the period with those players still on the ice.
- It hasn’t been a good period for Montreal.
- Slafkovský makes it better with a shot behind an out-of-position Oettinger. With Caufield getting another assist, that’s 22 points in the last 22 games for #22.
- Montreal is still in this one, but the third period has to be more like the first.
- That’s going to require another penalty kill first, as Jayden Struble is off for a hold with just seconds to play in the middle frame.
Third period
- They gave Caufield’s assist to Matheson on Montreal’s second goal, so just the one point for him so far.
- The Evans/Armia duo continues to do good work on the penalty kill.
- Suzuki’s not half bad either, spinning away to lever himself away from traffic and get the puck out.
- Evans draws a cross-check from Tyler Seguin. He found another player who hates his head. I don’t know what it is about him.
- Slafkovský just missed a tap-in that would have made it consecutive two-goal games. The puck just slipped past his stick and between his feet.
- Red alert: the second unit is back on the ice with the power play due to expire.
- Montembeault is able to get a whistle and let them change.
- Jesse Ylönen just about ties the game on a backhand shot in what has been a rare shift in the offensive zone for the fourth line since the first period.
- Montreal is starting to control the play now.
- Pearson now draws a penalty with a net drive and gets taken down. The power play has looked dangerous all night long and will be Montreal’s best chance to tie this up.
- It’s a dud on this occasion, however.
- Pearson gets tripped as he heads into the offensive zone, but the officials decide they don’t want to call that one. Dallas can’t handle his speed, obviously.
- The linesman calls a play offside that wasn’t. Suzuki had an open lane to the net.
- Struble sends a double down the ice on an eye-high puck that was fluttering dangerously close to Montembeault. Perfectly fine to take an icing in that situation.
- Newhook connects with Caufield, but Caufield doesn’t quite have enough to pull the puck around Oettinger while crossing the front of the crease.
- Armia and Evans just about generate a goal at five-on-five, but it turns out they created that chance with a high stick from Evans in the neutral zone. Instead of a goal, Evans now has to serve a four-minute penalty.
- Evans’s stick was actually below his shoulder, so not a “high” one, but it’s a penalty nonetheless.
- Ggnac and Matheson race away (they are the two fastest players at their positions after all) for a short-handed chance, but Oettinger just gets his toe on Matheson’s fake.
- This has been some of Montreal’s best play of the game. At four-on-five.
- Armia executes a give-and-go, but just lifts an open look over the crossbar.
- Evans is out. Maybe they should send him back in.
- Dallas ices the puck with a minute left, and that will allow Martin St-Louis to call his timeout.
- Montreal wins the faceoff, and that’s now allowed.
- Dallas does a good job of keeping Montreal out of the zone, and the game finishes 3-2.
EOTP 3 Stars
3) Not long until they start playing the puck to one another.
2) Some other players did some almost goalish things
1) It’s going to be a fun epoch
