The Canadian used his opportunism to triumph at the Climate Pledge Arena.
The Montreal squad scored four times on its first eight shots and beat the Seattle Kraken 4-2 on Tuesday.
Johnathan Kovacevic, Cole Caufield, Josh Anderson and Rem Pitlick hit the target for the Canadian (13-11-2).
Martin Jones made 12 saves in front of the Kraken net while his opposite, Jake Allen, repelled 31 shots in the victory.
It was the first meeting between the first choice of the last auction, Juraj Slafkovsky, and Shane Wright, who has long been considered the favorite as the first choice of the draft.
If Wright managed to score for the first time in the NHL, Slafkovsky also pulled through with an assist.
Wright was playing his first NHL game since Nov. 5. On Monday, the Kraken recalled him from the Coachella Valley Firebirds of the American Hockey League.
Jared McCann also scored for the Kraken (15-7-3). The Seattle squad, which had just won seven straight games, suffered a second straight setback.
The Canadian had to deal with the absences of forwards Sean Monahan and Brendan Gallagher.
Monahan left the duel against the Canucks in the second period and did not return to play. His state of health will be assessed upon his return to Montreal.
As for Gallagher, the team announced earlier today that the fiery winger will be on the sidelines for a minimum of two additional weeks. He was injured Nov. 29 against the San Jose Sharks.
The Martin St. Louis men will have three days off and will return to action Saturday at the Bell Center against the Los Angeles Kings.
Quality over quantity
After a slow start on both sides, the Kraken began to buzz around the net of the Canadian’s jailer.
Allen, however, stood in front of Wright by extending the pad after a cross pass in the second half of the first period.
This allowed the Canadian to take the lead a few moments later.
Following a face-off won by Kirby Dach, Mike Matheson handed the puck to his partner Kovacevic and Kovacevic’s wrist shot from the blue line surprised Jones. The 25-year-old defender then scored his first goal in the Bettman circuit and gave the Canadian a 1-0 lead at 12:56 of the first period.
It was only a postponement for Wright, who had not said his last word.
Wright, who accepted Oliver Bjorkstrand’s throw-in from behind the net and shot straight away, beat Allen’s guard and scored his first NHL goal.
The 18-year-old center continued to stand out late in the engagement. Wright fired another point-blank shot at Allen, but the latter won the third round between the two men.
The Canadian started the middle period with a second wind. It hit the target twice in seven seconds.
After a hazardous pass from a Kraken player in his defensive zone, Nick Suzuki intercepted the disc and waited before passing it to Caufield, who beat Jones with a powerful one-timer. Like thieves, Suzuki has been instrumental in seven of Caufield’s 15 goals this season.
Dvorak then collected a loose puck at the edge of the Kraken zone, drove straight to the net before serving a precise lifted pass to Anderson who hit the mark by shooting into the top of the net. The Canadiens gave themselves a two-goal lead 2:12 into the second period.
The Canadian continued to show opportunism at the end of the period. A tic-tac-toe game, which ended with a pass from Joel Edmundson to Rem Pitlick, saw the Canadian score for the fourth time on his eighth shot of the game. The Habs scored three times during the period despite only four shots.
The Kraken allowed themselves to believe in a comeback thanks to McCann’s 12th goal of the campaign, which redirected the puck between Allen’s pads with less than a second to go in the period.
The Canadian managed to close the game in the third period, in addition to doubling his total shots, to end the game with 16 shots.