The Vancouver Canucks took advantage of a rare double from defenseman Nikita Zadorov to extend their lead in first place in the Western Conference by winning against the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.
Virtually excluded from the playoffs, the Habs suffered a fourth consecutive defeat, this time by a score of 4-1.
Conor Garland and Nils Aman also threaded the needle in victory. Casey DeSmith signed his 10e victory of the season by making 16 saves.
Juraj Slafkovsky was the only scorer for the Canadian. Samuel Montembeault stopped 21 pucks, suffering a sixth defeat in a row. His last victory dates back to February 27, against the Arizona Coyotes.
The Canadiens head coach, Martin St-Louis, missed a third game in a row for family reasons. Trevor Letowski replaced him again.
Tanner Pearson returned to the Habs lineup and faced his former team. He was replacing rookie Joshua Roy, who was injured blocking a shot against the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday. The recruit will miss four to six weeks of activity.
The Bleu-Blanc-Rouge will now visit the Kraken on Sunday in Seattle and conclude their five-game trip out West against the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday in Denver.
The Canucks too strong
The Canadian made a string of good appearances at the start of the game, forcing DeSmith to report on a few occasions, but things got complicated afterwards.
The visitors took two minor penalties to give the Canucks a stretch of more than a minute with a two-man advantage midway through the first period.
The Montreal team escaped without allowing a goal, then Brendan Gallagher almost scored coming out of the penalty box.
The British Columbia team nevertheless opened the scoring a few moments later when Zadorov’s shot slipped into the back of the net. Canucks forward Sam Lafferty and Canadian defenseman David Savard obscured Montembeault’s view.
During a third Canucks power play before the end of the first period, defenseman Quinn Hughes hit the post head-on. Defender Kaiden Guhle was then hit in the face by Nils Hoglander’s elbow, but the situation escaped the officials.
Zadorov doubled his team’s lead with 27 seconds left in the first with a shot taken right into the heart of the slot.
After giving the first three penalties to the Canadian, the referees took action four times against the Canucks in the second period. The visitors were nevertheless unable to reduce the gap in three superiorities.
The Canucks then dealt a hard blow through Garland at 18:14.
A missed pass from Arber Xhekaj towards Kaiden Guhle, at the Canucks blue line, was the origin of this goal. It allowed Teddy Blueger to recover the puck and give it to Garland, who fooled Montembeault with a shot into the upper right part of the net.
Slafkovsky then reduced the gap by deflecting a Cole Caufield shot 53 seconds later. The Slovak thus collected at least one point in a sixth game in a row.
The Canucks hit the final nail in the Canadian’s coffin when Aman surprised Montembeault with a shot from the point at 11:44 of the third period.