(Nashville) The Canadian played hard on his second outing under the watch of new hockey boss Jeff Gorton, but suffered another setback on Saturday night at Bridgestone Arena.
Filip Forsberg scored in overtime and the Nashville Predators defeated the Montreal team 4-3.
Forsberg played the heroes with 11.1 seconds left in extra period. He had just recovered his stick when he took advantage of a cross pass from Mikael Granlund to beat goaltender Jake Allen.
The Canadian defeated the Predators 6-3 at the Bell Center on November 20.
“In overtime, things can go from one side to the other,” said Habs forward Nick Suzuki. Both teams had chances.
“Collectively, we’ve been playing better in recent games. If we continue like this, the results will follow. ”
Suzuki, Christian Dvorak and Brett Kulak scored in regulation time for the Canadian (6-17-3). Cole Caufield and Tyler Toffoli each had two assists and Allen stopped 40 shots.
“I enjoyed our second period. Then we took the lead early in the third, but they pushed to come back, underlined the head coach of the Canadian, Dominique Ducharme. They gave us a hard time in third.
“We fought well. We were not far from winning. We were there, but unfortunately we weren’t able to get the second point. ”
Luke Kunin had a goal and an assist, while Eeli Tolvanen and Tanner Jeannot also hit the mark in regulation for the Predators (13-10-1). Mattias Ekholm was credited with two assists and Juuse Saros turned away 20 shots.
The Canadiens last regulation time victory at Nashville dates back to March 10, 2003.
The Habs are 1-17-3 this season when they score three goals or less.
Forward Mike Hoffman was back in the game for the Canadian, relieving Josh Anderson, injured Thursday against the Colorado Avalanche. Mattias Norlinder was also back in the squad, replacing Jeff Petry who suffered from an upper body injury.
The Canadiens will play their next game on Tuesday, when they host the Tampa Bay Lightning at the Bell Center.
Chances on both sides
The Predators dominated their rivals early in the game. Halfway through the first period, the Predators were leading 1-0 and had an 8-1 advantage in shots on goal, while the Canadiens had to pass two penalties.
Tolvanen opened the scoring after 4:52 of play, deflecting a shot from Ekholm.
The Canadian started in the second half of the engagement, but ran into Saros during a power play. The Predators goaltender frustrated Cole Caufield on a receiving shot, then Ryan Poehling at close range.
Michael Pezzetta applied a good hitting against Matt Benning early in the second period, then threw the gloves in front of Mark Borowiecki. As he made his way to the penalty box, Pezzetta yelled at the Canadiens bench waving his arms, asking his teammates to play with more energy.
The Habs tied the power play at 4:48. Suzuki moved the strings with a sharp, sharp shot in the upper end.
Dvorak then gave the Canadian a 2-1 lead at 10:01 am, moments after winning a race to reverse a denied clearance.
Predators head coach John Hynes contested the goal, to no avail. Then the Habs found themselves in the power play of two players for 64 seconds. However, he was unable to take advantage of this situation.
Suzuki and Poehling orchestrated two-on-one attacks in the next few minutes, but they may have been too generous and the Canadian didn’t take advantage of those situations.
The Predators tied it 2-2 with 2:36 left in the second period. Jeannot deflected another shot from Ekholm into the goal.
Allen got the Canadiens back to the locker room in a 2-2 stalemate, being fuming past Forsberg in the dying moments of the period.
Kulak gave the Canadiens the lead after 3:10 of play in the third period, but Kunin replied at 10:12 in a scrimmage in front of Allen’s net.
Artturi Lehkonen could have settled things in regulation, when he escaped with less than two minutes to go in the third period, but Saros made the save.
Allen also stood out ahead of Granlund in the dying moments of the third period.
Forsberg finally allowed the Predators to have the final say.