(Buffalo) L’entraîneur-chef Martin St-Louis doit jongler avec trois gardiens depuis le début de la saison alors que le Québécois Samuel Montembeault, l’espoir Cayden Primeau et le vétéran Jake Allen ont tous résisté aux dernières coupures lors du camp d’entraînement.
Allen ne veut pas être le laissé-pour-compte et il l’a prouvé en signant une performance de 36 arrêts, lundi, dans un gain de 3-1 du Canadien de Montréal contre les Sabres de Buffalo.
Allen a notamment eu à effectuer un arrêt important du gant aux dépens de Jeff Skinner en infériorité numérique, au troisième tiers, alors que le défenseur David Savard avait perdu une lame de patin. Le gardien conservait ainsi l’avance de 2-1 des siens.
Après une performance sans éclat en lever de rideau dans une défaite de 5-4 aux mains des Maple Leafs de Toronto, l’homme masqué de 33 ans a remporté un deuxième match en trois jours. Il montre un taux d’efficacité de ,929 jusqu’ici, n’ayant cédé que trois fois à ses deux dernières sorties.
« Il calme le groupe quand l’autre équipe [attaque], said St-Louis about his goalkeeper. We had a good start, but we took a penalty and that put us on our heels a little. He did the job. […] Jake made some big saves for us and kept the score close. »
Dominated 37-26 in shots on goal, the Canadian showed opportunism to win. If the match was not perfect, St-Louis retained some good things from this outing.
“It wasn’t a Picasso, it wasn’t anything perfect. They spent time in our zone and we defended ourselves well, argued the instructor. It seemed like the puck was bouncing everywhere for us in the offensive zone. We remained patient, we killed big penalties and we went for a goal at the end. »
Brendan Gallagher took advantage of a rare chance from the visitors in the third to score the winning goal.
After Savard had directed the puck towards the Sabers cage on a delivery from Tanner Pearson, Gallagher went in front of Eric Comrie to push the puck between the goalie’s pads, not without suffering the double failures of his opponents.
“It’s a great example,” said St-Louis about the work of its veterans. They are hockey players. Not just guys playing hockey, hockey players. There is a big difference and it is a great example for our young people. »
“The best way to be a leader is to lead by example. It’s important to have that. »
To cap off this victory, Pearson made the move on a power play in the third. It was only the team’s third power play goal since the start of the campaign.
A defender scores
Justin Barron opened the scoring at the start of the first period. Arber
PHOTO TIMOTHY T. LUDWIG, USA TODAY SPORTS VIA REUTERS CON
Justin Barron (52) celebrates his goal with Brendan Gallagher and Sean Monahan.
Barron played only his second game this season after being left out as the seventh defenseman in the Canadiens’ first three games this season. On Monday, he became the first fullback to hit the target for the Habs in 2023-24.
The Sabers responded less than five minutes later with Skinner finding the opening over Allen’s left shoulder from a tight angle on a power play.
It was a 24e goal in 39 games for Skinner against the Habs. Only Washington Capitals captains Alexander Ovechkin (37 for 56) and Toronto Maple Leafs captains Auston Matthew (26 for 32) did better among active players.
Comrie stopped 23 of the 26 pucks he faced in the loss.
After this short visit to Buffalo, the CH will return to the Bell Center on Tuesday, where it will play a second game in as many evenings, this time against the New Jersey Devils. The same evening, the Sabers will be in Ottawa to cross swords with the Senators.
The Montreal team will also be able to benefit from the support of its fans on Thursday, against the Columbus Blue Jackets, then on Saturday, against the Winnipeg Jets.