The Colorado Avalanche came to the Bell Center with back-to-back wins against the Boston Bruins, Vegas Golden Knights and Toronto Maple Leafs over the past week. Not only did the Montreal Canadian stand up to him, he went for two precious points in the standings.
Joel Armia scored with just over four minutes left in the third period, and the Habs posted a 4-3 victory against Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar on Monday night.
Armia pounced on a loose puck in front of the net and backhanded it behind Alexandar Georgiev. It was his seventh goal of the season.
Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki led the Canadian attack with two points each.
The Habs scored two power play goals, those of Caufield (13th), in the third period, and Juraj Slafkovsky (5th), in the first period. Suzuki had a hand in both goals.
Rafael Harvey-Pinard, late in the second period, added his first of the season at the expense of Georgiev, who faced 34 shots.
For Harvey-Pinard, it was his first goal in almost a full year, and the young forward was relieved in the club’s locker room.
This goal was particularly important because it allowed the Canadian to bring the score to 2-2 after being largely dominated during the first 15 minutes of the middle period.
“I won’t lie that [ce but-là], it sure does good. I’ve been waiting for it since the start of the season. I had been away for two months and I couldn’t wait for him to arrive. We feel even better when he comes in with a great victory,” said Harvey-Pinard.
Makar, the Avalanche’s wonderful defenseman, was the visitors’ offensive mainstay with a performance of one goal and two assists.
Ross Colton and Devon Toews also thwarted the vigilance of Jake Allen, who scored his first victory in Montreal since October 28, and his fifth of the season.
Allen blocked 32 pucks and played with poise.
“I’m happy for Jake. He had a great match. He has played good hockey so far and there have been performances where we did not give him offensive support,” mentioned head coach Martin St-Louis.
The Canadian will take charge again Wednesday evening in Newark, where he will battle the New Jersey Devils. Visits to Ottawa on Thursday and Boston on Saturday will be added by the end of the week.
One #20 scores, the other replies
The first period offered some very divided play, but the first five minutes of action did not suggest anything of the sort.
The Avalanche quickly took control of the territory and took advantage of a numerical superiority in the fourth minute of play when Michael Pezzetta was caught for holding Fredrik Olofsson.
Barely a minute later, Colton, stationed at the mouth of the net, had two chances to beat Allen and didn’t miss the second.
Limited to just one shot after almost seven minutes of play, the Canadian responded in very similar circumstances. Even the Canadian’s scorer number — 20 — was the same as that of his rivals.
Forgotten in front of Georgiev’s goal, Slafkovsky received a nice pass from Suzuki and beat the Avalanche goaltender on his second attempt just 24 seconds after a penalty called against defenseman Sam Malinski.
An important moment
After a good end to the first period, the Canadian failed to continue this momentum at the start of the middle period.
Midway through the period, the Avalanche held a 12-3 advantage in shots, and a one-goal lead, thanks to Makar’s 10th 61 seconds into the game, on a shot from the blue line that Allen probably didn’t see it, because of the heavy traffic in front of him.
The Avalanche even found themselves with a two-man power play for 26 seconds, following infractions called against Armia, for hooking, and Harvey-Pinard, for delaying the game.
The Canadian held on and it seemed to give him back his wings to the point of managing to tie the score before the end of the period thanks to Harvey-Pinard.
As with his goal, Harvey-Pinard was relieved that the Avalanche did not take advantage of this double power play.
Harvey-Pinard and his teammates met in the locker room, including Suzuki, Caufield and Jake Allen, all agreed that this was a crucial segment of the clash.
“I was very happy honestly. You never want to take this kind of punishment. I thanked the guys when I got to the bench. They did a good job on the penalty kill, and I think that was a turning point in the game,” said Harvey-Pinard.
The Canadian then took the lead for the first time in the game at 1:52 of the third period thanks to Caufield, with the help of a wrist shot into the upper part of the net, during a power play.
The Avalanche, however, responded midway through the period as the two clubs played four-on-four.
Toews beat Allen with a wrist shot that first hit Jayden Struble’s left hand.
But Armia would restore the lead to the Habs who then resisted the final attacks from the offensive pillars of the Avalanche.