The Canadian bows, despite the good performance of Montembeault

(Las Vegas) Shea Theodore hit the target in overtime to inflict a 4-3 loss to the Montreal Canadiens against the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday night.

Michael Pezzetta, Tyler Toffoli and Mike Hoffman hit the target for the Canadian (8-25-6), who was trying to sign a second victory in a row for the first time this season. It will be for another time.

Chandler Stevenson, William Karlsson, Jonathan Marchessault blackened the score sheet in regulation for the Golden Knights (24-15-2), which thus curbed a three-game losing streak.

The Canadian scored one goal in three power plays, but he conceded two in three occasions to the Golden Knights.

Samuel Montembeault made his second straight start after stopping an impressive 51 shots in a 5-3 win over the Dallas Stars on Tuesday. He wrapped up another busy night at work with 49 saves.

His vis-à-vis, Robin Lehner, yielded three times on a total of 27 shots aimed at the Golden Knights net, first in the Pacific Division.

The more it changes, the more it is the same with the Canadian. A silly mistake in the defensive back of the Canadian players led to the first goal of the match, the work of Stevenson at 3: 40 of the first period.

The Golden Knights kept up the pressure thereafter, but fortunately for the Canadian, Montembeault continued his impeccable work started in the last game against the Stars. Pezzetta then brought the two teams back to square one by jumping on a return throw from Artturi Lehkonen, in the last third of the engagement.

The two teams then exchanged a goal each on the power play in the second period.

Karlsson first restored the lead to the hosts halfway through the period, after taking advantage of a gap in the Montreal defence. Toffoli, again, was responsible for creating the 2-2 tie less than three minutes later. The veteran, with his seventh goal of the campaign, took the opportunity to reach the 20-point plateau in 2021-22.

Hoffman gave the Canadiens a first-of-the-game lead by firing a sharp one-timer from the face-off circle to Lehner’s right at 6:15 of the final period. Marchessault, however, brought the score to 3-3 by vibrating the strings in numerical superiority, with less than 10 minutes to elapse on the clock.

Theodore finally sealed the game at 1:50 of extra time.

Canadian head coach Dominique Ducharme made no changes to his roster for the game against the Nevada club. For the Knights, forwards Mark Stone and Nick Hague missed the game after being subjected to the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol, while Max Pacioretty is still recovering from wrist surgery.

It should be noted that the president of hockey operations of the Canadian, Jeff Gorton, and the new general manager, Kent Hughes, joined the team in Las Vegas. They attended the match at T-Mobile Arena.

The Habs are 1-2-2 since the start of this long journey of seven games. He will continue Saturday night, visiting the Colorado Avalanche, first in the Western Conference.