(Montreal) The Canadiens made the necessary adjustments to defeat one of their pet peeves on Tuesday night at the Bell Centre.
Kirby Dach scored on his return, Nick Suzuki added two assists and the Montreal club defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 3-2.
The Habs had lost their first three games of the campaign against the Lightning, notably suffering a 5-3 loss in Tampa on Saturday.
“It’s fun to play against the same team again,” said Canadiens head coach Martin St-Louis. We had a lot of examples to demonstrate things to improve.
“I liked our game,” he added.
The Lightning had amassed at least one point in their last 10 games against the Habs (9-0-1). For his part, goalkeeper Andrei Vasilevskiy had triumphed in his 11 previous outings against the Canadian.
“It’s good for the confidence of the group and even the staff,” said St-Louis. My job is to convince players to do things a certain way. A win like that makes it much easier. »
Samuel Montembeault was making his fourth straight start and he was brilliant in front of the Canadiens net. He made 31 saves.
Jonathan Drouin and Mike Matheson also hit the target for the Canadian (28-37-6), who had won only one of his 10 previous games (1-7-2).
Brayden Point and Pat Maroon scored for the Lightning (42-24-6). Vasilevskiy stopped 17 shots.
Dach (lower body) and Brendan Gallagher (right foot) were back in action for the Canadian. Dach had missed the Canadiens’ last 16 games and Gallagher, 45 of the last 48 meetings.
Jesse Ylönen (illness) was left out, while Anthony Richard was transferred to the Laval Rocket.
Josh Anderson appeared to injure his right leg late in the game when he lost his balance before sliding into an empty net. The team said he won’t accompany his teammates to Boston for a game against the Bruins on Thursday.
The Canadiens also announced that defenseman Kaiden Guhle’s season is over due to a sprained left ankle suffered on March 16 against the Florida Panthers.
A great reward
Although he did not score on a power play early in the game, the Habs took the opportunity to gain momentum by generating a few scoring opportunities.
Dach finally opened the scoring 8:27 into the game, seconds after Suzuki intercepted a pass from Darren Raddysh.
Drouin widened the gap at 14:00 of the first period. He took advantage of a pass from Denis Gurianov, then beat Vasilevskiy with an accurate shot from the side of the shield.
Montembeault signaled himself before the end of the first twenty. He stopped a point-blank shot from Point on a Lightning power play.
The visitors dominated the second period, but they still retired to the locker room with a two-goal deficit.
Point scored at 8:58 on another power play, but Matheson replied at 16:58 with a long shot that stunned Vasilevskiy.
Montembeault allowed the Canadian to survive the onslaught of the Lightning. The Quebec goaltender was spectacular when he stretched the right leg to frustrate Nick Perbix as the teams played four against four.
The Lightning also ran out of luck a few times, including when Ross Colton missed the target after a perfect throw-in from Corey Perry.
The Canadian squandered numerous scoring opportunities in the third period, then Maroon finally reduced the lead to just one goal with 5:06 to go.
However, the Habs were able to stifle the Lightning attack afterwards.
Locker Room Echoes
Jonathan Drouin was happy to have made the decision to shoot his goal.
“I often look for the pass, but this time there was nobody. I took my shot and hit the spot I was aiming for. »
Nick Suzuki admitted it was difficult to beat Andrei Vasilevskiy.
“He is probably the best goalkeeper in the world. It’s hard to beat him. It was good to score early against him. It gave us confidence. »
Samuel Montembeault underlined the good work of his teammates at the end of the game.
“Especially in the last four minutes, we were in possession of the puck and we handled it well. We did not force games. We had some good battles in the corner to sell seconds. »