(Montreal) The Canadian spoiled Patrick Roy’s return to Montreal behind the New York Islanders bench.
The Habs squandered a three-goal lead before slipping away with a 4-3 victory thanks to a goal from Sean Monahan late in the third period Thursday night at the Bell Centre.
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
Patrick Roy
Roy was coaching his third game as head coach of the Islanders. He received a warm welcome from fans before the match.
His team then had to work hard to get back on track, thanks in particular to two goals in the third period during a match penalty to Brendan Gallagher for an elbow to the head of defender Adam Pelech.
Monahan, however, played the hero for the Canadian by breaking the deadlock with 2:12 to go. He hit the mark with a one-timer after a short back pass from Josh Anderson.
The Canadian thus ended a series of three defeats.
Monahan finished the game with two goals and an assist to his record. Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki each had a goal and an assist for the Canadian (20-21-7). Samuel Montembeault had a strong game and made 44 saves.
Mathew Barzal, Bo Horvat and Kyle Palmieri each had a goal and an assist for the Islanders (20-17-11). Noah Dobson had three assists and Semyon Varlamov made 22 saves.
For this meeting, the Canadian recalled center Lucas Condotta from the Laval Rocket. Joshua Roy was demoted to the Habs’ farm club on Wednesday.
The Canadian will play one last game before his bye week on Saturday, when he visits the Pittsburgh Penguins. His next game will take place on February 6 against the Capitals in Washington.
Another suspense
Montembeault made his appearance for the first time after a little less than four minutes of play. He frustrated Barzal by stretching his left pad, then played the same trick on Anders Lee on the return.
The Canadian opened the scoring on the power play after 7:06 of play. Suzuki completed a magnificent passing play by deflecting a delivery from Juraj Slafkovsky into the goal.
The Habs widened the gap at 11:36, while the teams were playing four against four. Suzuki recovered a puck lost by the Islanders in their territory and joined Caufield. The latter made fun of the withdrawal of Samuel Bolduc and Varlamov to register at least one point in an eighth game in a row.
Monahan then made it 3-0 in favor of the Canadian just 43 seconds later, on the power play. Mike Matheson did all the work carrying the puck from one end of the ice to the other. He finally made a back pass to Monahan at the last moment and the attacker beat Varlamov.
Roy eventually called a timeout to slow the home team’s momentum.
It didn’t really work. Michael Pezzetta and Rafaël Harvey-Pinard came close to increasing the gap following a set-up from Condotta, but Varlamov frustrated them in quick succession.
The Islanders got going in the second period. They dominated the engagement 18-7 in terms of shots on goal.
Horvat pushed the puck behind the goal line 2:26 into the game, but the referees ruled he had ended the sequence before the goal.
It was only a postponement for Horvat, who finally beat Montembeault at 3:02, during a two-player power play. David Savard only touched Barzal’s cross pass towards Horvat and the latter was able to shoot into the opening.
Horvat missed a golden opportunity during another Islanders power play. This time, Savard blocked his shot when he thought he could shoot into a gaping cage.
The Canadian prevented the Islanders from threatening during the first half of the last period.
Gallagher’s punishment finally opened the door for the Islanders.
After long, unconvincing sequences, Barzal finally surprised Montembeault with a precise shot with 5:08 left in the match and 2:01 on Gallagher’s penalty.
Palmieri then tied the game with 3:32 left, again on the power play. He scored on his own return after having a goal stolen by Montembeault with his right pad.
Monahan, however, gave the Canadian the lead again a few moments later.