This time it’s true, Josh Anderson is back!
Anderson scored two goals during a four-goal surge by the Canadian in the second period and the Montreal club defeated the New York Islanders 5-3 on Saturday night at the Bell Centre.
Head coach Martin St-Louis said a few weeks ago that Anderson was back, having had a few good games without finding the back of the net.
Anderson then scored his first goal on December 4 against the Seattle Kraken, but he scored into an empty net.
This time, Anderson beat goaltender Semyon Varlamov twice, scoring his first goals of the campaign against a goaltender in his 30e match.
The Canadian barely held on to his 4-0 lead in the third period to end his 2023 home schedule on a good note.
Joel Armia, Cole Caufield and Christian Dvorak, in an empty net, also scored for the Canadian (13-13-4). Justin Barron, Sean Monahan and Nick Suzuki each had two assists and Samuel Montembeault made 31 saves.
For the Islanders (14-8-8), Brock Nelson scored twice and Bo Horvat also scored. Noah Dobson had three assists and Varlamov stopped 36 shots.
Forward Jake Evans was in the Canadian squad after missing the team’s practices over the past two days.
The Canadian will play three times abroad next week, before his Christmas break. He will visit the Winnipeg Jets on Monday, the Minnesota Wild on Thursday and the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday.
A stressful ending
The Canadian spent a lot of time in the offensive zone in the first period, but the Islanders did a good job protecting the slot and the front of the net.
Varlamov got lucky just over 13 minutes into the game, when Brendan Gallagher deflected Johnathan Kovacevic’s shot against the post. On the return, the puck was stopped by the skate of Alexander Romanov, then Varlamov dove to frustrate Dvorak.
The Habs took control of the match during the second period.
Armia opened the scoring at 7:45, taking advantage of a good effort from Gallagher before beating Varlamov to the glove side.
Anderson then scored at 10:35. He was hit in the slot by a shot from Barron, then he beat Varlamov by shooting while pivoting on himself.
The power forward returned to the attack with 52.4 seconds left in the period. Anderson ignored defenseman Mike Reilly’s coverage and rushed to the net to beat Varlamov.
Caufield then made it 4-0 in favor of the Canadian with 37.9 seconds remaining. Juraj Slafkovsky made Romanov lose control of the puck behind his net. Suzuki quickly joined Caufield in the slot and the American forward scored with a one-timer.
Nelson revived the Islanders when he took advantage of the Canadian’s laxity to score shorthanded after 2:07 of play in the third period.
He came back 1:36 later, on a nice crossfield pass from Dobson.
St-Louis called a timeout to slow the Islanders’ momentum and the Canadian settled back for a while.
Horvat finally cut the lead to one goal with 5:54 left on the clock, scoring on a rebound after a Dobson shot.
The Canadian managed to close the door on the Islanders at the end of the game. Dvorak confirmed the result by scoring into an empty net with 19.3 seconds remaining.