Harnarayan Singh and John Garrett on the call. A significant improvement over the usual.
First period
- Mark Scheifele gets some deserved boos during his first shift.
- The crowd noise is a bit muffled for this game. The audio doesn’t have the crispness of an RDS broadcast.
- A very slow start to this one. Both teams are focused on their defensive play.
- The first shot for Montreal goes to Kaiden Guhle, joining a rush with Juraj Slafkovský.
- Alex Newhook gets his sticks into the hands of Adam Lowry on a breakaway, and that’s a penalty shot.
- He goes five-hole on Jake Allen after the delay to open the scoring.
- Another defenceman joins the rush. Justin proves to be the best Barron brother by tying the game.
- That’s three goals in four games for him. He’s found his groove.
- Cole Caufield and a Jets player collide at the blue line, and it’s a penalty for Caufield.
- Winnipeg gets very little from their power play because the Canadiens aren’t giving up the top of the crease. The Jets try using six skaters, but the referee tells them they can’t.
- Caufield has his stick knocked out of his hands. It’s not a penalty on this occasion.
- Johnny Kovacevic defends a two-on-one well to prevent a pass across and then shut down a shot. There is a follow-up attempt, but he did his part.
- Incredible pass through two Jets players by Caufield. He’s becoming quite the playmaker. Good luck defending that dual threat.
- Guhle tries to shoulder his man away from the puck, but with Namestnikov reaching for it, Guhle’s elbow makes contact with the head. He’s off for two minutes.
- One of the penalty kill’s issues is failed clears. The players have more time to see where the outlet lanes are before firing.
- Lowry gets knocked down and looks to the ref. You can’t blame him when that seems to be the formula for power plays so far.
- The Canadiens are getting some dangerous chances without necessarily getting the puck on net. I’ll take a missed cross-crease deflection over a shot to the crest any day. But chances and a control of the possession would be great also.
- A scramble in the dying seconds nearly sees the Jets take the lead, but it’s even after one period.
Second period
- A poor opening shift from Montreal leads to a Jets goal. Allen was looking the wrong way, Jordan Harris was on the wrong side of Lowry, and the forward scores.
- And a poor follow-up shift sees the score go to 3-1. We’ve only played 33 seconds. Slafkovský’s pass pinballed around off his own net, setting up an open look for Nino Niederreiter.
- Montreal needs a different game plan from the one they brought into this game.
- Some nice work from Joel Armia to create a couple of looks for the fourth line, and some rare sustained pressure in the offensive zone.
- The top follows up by coming inches short of finding a second goal.
- For a big guy, Slafkovský doesn’t protect the puck very well. just leaves it way from his body where it can be poked away.
- Montreal is heading to the power play. Can it continue the momentum it’s built up in the past few days?
- It can. They switch to the opposite side to Caufield’s after a couple of attempts to make that work and Nick Suzuki gets the puck to Sean Monahan, who makes an excellent move to pull it back in the opposite direction, watch Laurent Brossoit slide out the other side, and put it in a vacated net. None of the other big bodies in the lineup have the composure to pull that off.
- More issues with the Lowry line, again after failing to clear the puck while they had possession.
- Mike Matheson has left for the dressing room. I’m not convinced he and Kaiden Guhle aren’t the same person and therefore only one can play at a time.
- The veteran line gets one great shot and four of five good whacks at the puck in the crease but can’t ties the game.
- Now it’s the Habs with consistent offensive presences.
- Gallagher got a partial break, wound-up … and dropped it to Caufield for the shot instead. That was the correct decision. But it wasn’t a goal.
- Matheson is back. has anyone seen Guhle?
- With 7.2 seconds left, Barron sends the puck over the glass. Montreal will have a penalty kill to open the third period before they can look for a tying goal.
Third period
- Rafaël Harvey-Pinard hits the post on a short-handed one-on-two.
- Armia takes a great pass from Guhle just as the penalty expires, and he ties the game on his seldom-used blistering shot. That trade value just went up.
- Two different Jets players go after Tanner Pearson. It ultimately leads to a fight. That came out of nowhere.
- Armia unleashes another shot. He didn’t get as much on that one.
- Guhle makes a good defensive stick check to prevent a point-blank shot from Kyle Connor.
- Matheson is “undergoing tests.” Not sure what that means.
- The Newhook line just cannot get the puck over the blue line with control.
- And another high-sticking penalty in the final two minutes. Montreal likes to make things difficult.
- It’s another point from a Jake Allen start, with him playing a starring role.
Overtime
- We’ve been doing this a lot lately.
- The rest of the penalty is killed, and we’ll have an offensive-zone faceoff to start the three-on-three play.
- Guhle leads a rush and gets off a shot that Brossoit can only fight off.
- The Canadiens make a bit of a mess while trying to get a tired Caufield off the ice and nearly give up the winner.
- Anderson had big plans for the winner. His feet were willing, but his hands betrayed him.
- They got the open look for Caufield, another Guhle pass, but he gets under the puck and sends it over the net. So close.
- The Guhle-Suzuki-Caufield trio is going to see a lot of overtime minutes together for this team.
Shootout
- Suzuki up first. Dekes Brossoit right onto his backside and scores.
- Sounds like Scheifele’s up next. Sounds like Scheifele got stopped.
- Caufield shot was … disappointing in the end. Right into the glove.
- Kyle Connor misses the net.
- Monahan can end it. Brossoit gets a piece, and then the post handles the rest.
- Allen stops Ehlers, going perfect in the shootout to seal the win.
EOTP 3 Stars
3) A good effort all around to fight their way back into it.
2) Good news if there are other players who need some AHL time.
1) If there’s one thing the Montreal Canadiens do well, it’s history.
