Head coach Martin St-Louis has had to juggle three goalies since the start of the season as Quebecer Samuel Montembeault, prospect Cayden Primeau and veteran Jake Allen all resisted the latest cuts during training camp.
Allen doesn’t want to be left behind and he proved it by posting a 36-save performance on Monday in the Montreal Canadiens’ 3-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres.
Allen notably had to make an important glove save at the expense of Jeff Skinner while shorthanded, in the third period, while defender David Savard had lost a skate blade. The goalkeeper thus preserved his team’s 2-1 lead.
After a lackluster curtain-raiser performance in a 5-4 loss at the hands of the Toronto Maple Leafs, the 33-year-old masked man won a second game in three days. He has a .929 save percentage so far, having only conceded three times in his last two outings.
Dominated 37-26 in shots on goal, the Canadian showed opportunism to win. 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.
And to cap off this victory, Pearson moved the strings during a power play. 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
It was a first goal for a Habs back this season.
The Sabers, however, responded less than five minutes later with Skinner, who found the opening over Allen’s left shoulder from a very tight angle during a power play.
It was Skinner’s 24th goal in 39 games 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.