The Canadian finally gave himself reasons to smile in 2023.
Jonathan Drouin scored his first goal in over a year, Jake Allen stopped 18 shots and the Montreal team beat the St. Louis Blues 5-4 on Saturday night at the Bell Centre.
Thanks to Drouin’s first goal since 1er January 2022, a 30-game drought, the Habs ended a seven-game losing streak.
The Canadian’s offense regained its good feeling, generating at least four goals for the first time since December 6 in a 4-2 win against the Seattle Kraken.
Joel Armia scored two goals two days after scoring his first goal of the season, while Cole Caufield and Kirby Dach also scored for the Canadiens (16-21-3). Nick Suzuki, Evgenii Dadonov and Jake Evans each had two assists.
For the Blues (19-18-3), who had won their two previous games, Nikita Alexandrov had a goal and an assist, while Alexey Toropchenko, Brandon Saad and Pavel Buchnevich also scored. Jordan Binnington made 22 saves.
The Blues lost defender Robert Bortuzzo in the first half to a lower body injury.
The Canadiens will host the Kraken on Monday night at the Bell Centre.
The enthusiasm is back
Playing a 700e game in the NHL, Canadian defender David Savard almost celebrated in style by going there with a nice climb from the first moments of the game. He was, however, unable to beat Binnington.
The Canadian played luck a little later, while Alexandrov saw a little too late that there was an open net in front of him since Allen had gone to retrieve his stick in the corner of the rink. Allen was finally able to easily catch the shot from the Blues striker.
Allen, however, was helpless in a two-on-one attack by the Blues late in the first period. Saad then took advantage of a pass from Brayden Schenn to beat him with 34.2 seconds left on the clock.
Christian Dvorak had been frustrated with Binnington seconds before.
Armia, however, tied the game 1:43 into the second period. He scored his second goal in as many games with an accurate throw from the face-off circle to Binnington’s right.
The Blues regained the lead at 6:59 of the second period. After a turnover from Arber Xhekaj out of the zone, Toropchenko found himself alone in front of Allen, who he beat on the side of the shield.
The Canadian’s power play finally came to the rescue before the end of the second period. After posts hit by Caufield and Suzuki, Dach finally tied the game at 16:15, following a short pass from Suzuki.
Caufield gave the Habs their first lead by scoring 36 seconds into the third period, but it didn’t last very long.
Alexandrov replied 1:53 later, taking advantage of a comeback after a shot from the top of the Calle Rosen slot. Buchnevich then gave the Blues a 4-3 lead at 4:42 on the power play.
However, Armia returned for the Habs at 7:20. Evans had just reached the post after a snap from Dadonov when Armia took advantage of the return to shoot into an open net.
Drouin finally put the Canadian ahead for good with 8:30 to play, thanks to a good individual effort after a turnover in the neutral zone.