(Columbus) The Canadiens players were rewarded after a great effort, while an unexpected hero allowed them to complete their trip with a winning record.
Joel Armia broke the tie late in the third period and the Montreal club defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets 4-2 on Wednesday at Nationwide Arena.
Armia had been inserted into the Canadian’s lineup in place of Michael Pezzetta. The Finnish striker played a seventh game with the Habs this season.
“It’s always a good feeling when you score,” Armia said. I will take all the positives from this match and continue to move forward. »
The Canadian thus ended his four-game trip with three victories.
“It’s a team victory. Everyone did their part, said coach Martin St-Louis. We are looking to have chemistry, depth. Tonight, that’s what we had. »
Alex Newhook, Cole Caufield and Gustav Lindström also hit the target for the Canadian (10-10-2). Mike Matheson had two assists and Samuel Montembeault stopped 26 shots.
“We had worked a lot on our forecheck and we did well at that level tonight,” Matheson said. All the trios played well, the three pairs of defenders and Montembeault too. We played a complete match. »
Patrik Laine and Yegor Chinakhov scored for the Blue Jackets (7-13-4), who squandered two one-goal leads. Elvis Merzlikins made 28 saves.
The Canadian will return to the Bell Center on Thursday, when they host the Florida Panthers. Cayden Primeau will defend the home team’s net.
blow for blow
The Canadian almost scored in the first moments of the match, but Kaiden Guhle’s long shot hit the post.
Montembeault made the two best saves of the first period. He frustrated Zach Werenski after a Caufield turnover, then got lucky when Chinakhov shot towards him when he appeared to have an open net.
The second period was much livelier.
Laine opened the scoring 3:40 into the game, escaping as the teams played four-on-four.
The Canadian tied the game at 7:36. Moments after reaching the post, Newhook took advantage of a second opportunity and beat Merzlikins from the slot.
The Blue Jackets regained the lead 2:11 later. Chinakhov completed a nice exchange started by Werenski and Dmitri Voronkov after a turnover by Guhle leaving the zone.
Once again, the Canadian responded relatively quickly. Caufield took advantage of a comeback after a Christian Dvorak shot during an overkill attack to shoot into an open cage with 5:52 left in the period.
Montembeault had stopped Boone Jenner on a breakaway moments earlier.
For a second time in the match, Guhle hit the frame of the net early in the third period, seeing his shot hit the crossbar.
Armia played the hero with 2:57 left in regulation. He ignored Erik Gudbranson’s coverage in front of the net and deflected a powerful one-timer from Matheson into the goal.
Lindström scored an insurance goal into an empty net with 56.1 seconds left on the clock.