(Vancouver) The cream finally went up on Wednesday at Rogers Arena.
Posted at 1:32
Stars JT Miller and Elias Pettersson scored in the third period and the Vancouver Canucks defeated the Montreal Canadiens 5-3.
Miller also had three assists for the Canucks, who had to work hard to defeat the Habs. In particular, they took advantage of two powerplay goals to win.
The Canadian ended his five-game trip with a 3-2-0 record. He is now 7-5-0 since Martin St-Louis replaced Dominique Ducharme behind the bench.
Artturi Lehkonen had two goals and an assist, while Rem Pitlick was credited with a goal and two assists for the Canadian (15-35-7). Samuel Montembeault stopped 28 shots.
PHOTO DARRYL DYCK, THE CANADIAN PRESS
Artturi Lehkonen celebrates his second goal of the game with Jake Evans.
Travis Hamonic, Brock Boeser and Bo Horvat, in an empty net, scored the other goals for the Canucks (29-23-6), who have won six of their last seven games. Thatcher Demko made 22 saves.
Forwards Jake Evans and Paul Byron were back in action for the Canadiens after missing one and four games respectively with upper body injuries. Michael Pezzetta and Mathieu Perreault were left out.
The Canadian will play two games this weekend. He will host the Seattle Kraken on Saturday, before visiting the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday.
In addition, the Habs announced Wednesday afternoon that defender Corey Schueneman has been transferred to the Laval Rocket.
The Canucks in the snatch
The Canadian got the first good chance to score after just over two minutes, but Evans was unable to deflect Ben Chiarot’s throw-in in the opener.
Lehkonen scored his first goal of the night after 12:41 of play. He took advantage of a Pitlick throw-in in a two-on-one attack to surprise Demko.
PHOTO BOB FRID, USA TODAY SPORTS
Thatcher Demko (35) blocks a shot from Nick Suzuki (14).
The Canucks replied 54 seconds later, after a long streak in Habs territory. Hamonic beat Montembeault with a long shot, which weaved its way through traffic.
Montembeault signaled himself early in the second half, frustrating Boeser with an outnumbered attack.
The Canadiens goaltender was also alert against Elias Pettersson, Quinn Hughes and Alex Chiasson during a Canucks power play.
For his part, Demko stood out by frustrating Joel Armia with the mitt on a point-blank shot.
Boeser gave the Canucks a power play lead at 10:34 of the second period. He was able to do it twice to beat Montembeault from a tight angle.
Lehkonen replied at 14:22, taking advantage of another staging by Pitlick.
Montembeault pulled off another spectacular save at the expense of Connor Garland before the end of the second period, before playing chances a few minutes later when Juho Lammikko’s deflection hit the post.
Miller quickly put the Canucks ahead for good in the third period, beating Montembeault 3:44 into the game after stealing the puck from Jeff Petry in the neutral zone.
Pettersson then dealt a heavy blow to the Canadian by scoring on the power play at 8:53 of the last third.
Pitlick closed the gap with 4:25 to go in the third period, while Montembeault had already been replaced by an extra striker. However, Horvat hit an empty net with 57 seconds left and the Canucks had the last laugh.