Led by its special teams, the Minnesota Wild scored an easy 5-2 victory against the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday evening at the Bell Centre.
The visitors scored no goals at five against five. They scored their first two goals shorthanded, during the same penalty, and the other three with a man advantage.
Three players did just about all the damage for the Wild. Joel Eriksson Ek scored twice, Kirill Kaprizov had a goal and two assists and Mats Zuccarello had three of the Wild’s goals.
Brandon Duhaime and Connor Dewar, both short a man in the first period, beat Samuel Montembeault, who faced 35 pucks.
In his first game in Montreal in a little less than a year, and perhaps the last of his career, Marc-André Fleury was barely tested, particularly during the first 40 minutes of play.
En route to his first victory of the season and the 545th of his career, the Sorel goalkeeper faced 27 shots. He gave in to Tanner Pearson in the second period and to Alex Newhook late in the third period.
Fleury also beat the Canadian for the 27th time in the regular season in 47 games. At the end of the match, he was applauded by the spectators who were still present. And as a gift, he received the first star, and another warm hand of applause.
Furthermore, the Canadian finished the game without the services of defender Kaiden Guhle. The Habs did not immediately specify the causes of his absence.
Next Saturday, the Canadian will complete their three-game home streak by hosting the Washington Capitals.
Rarely seen
Over the past two seasons, the Canadiens’ power play has lagged in the depths of the National Hockey League.
In the first period, the Montreal team did nothing to show its fans that this aspect of its game is about to improve.
After resisting a Wild numerical superiority, during which Montembeault blocked four shots, it was the Habs’ turn to take advantage of a man advantage when Ryan Hartman tripped Josh Anderson. Exactly 62 seconds later, the Wild led 2-0 thanks to two goals in 25 seconds.
Duhaime first beat Montembeault with a glove-side shot during a two-on-one breakaway at 9:20.
Then, Duhaime was at the origin of another push in the zone by the Canadian which ended with a goal credited to Dewar, on a bizarre sequence.
After a save from Montembeault, Dewar lightly touched the puck, which remained near the Canadian goalie.
However, Pearson and Arber Xhekaj’s efforts to clear the front of the net were in vain. The puck instead leapt into the air before falling behind Montembeault and into the net.
According to information that journalist Guillaume Lefrançois was able to trace, it was the first time that the Canadian conceded two goals during the same power play since April 2009 during a game against the Pittsburgh Penguins… with Fleury in front of the net at Bell Center.
Incidentally, the Canadian was not very vigorous during this first twenty. He was limited to five shots, including none during a segment lasting more than 10 minutes in the middle of the period.
A similar scenario repeated itself in the first half of the middle period. The Canadian’s first shot came at 9:47 of the period but it paid off, Pearson beating Fleury with a wrist shot from the glove side.
However, the Wild had time to add a power play goal, the first from Eriksson Ek. And the visitors scored another, that of Kaprizov, in similar circumstances with less than three minutes remaining in the period.
After 40 minutes of play, the Wild dominated 26-15 in shots on goal and were in full control.
He maintained this control in the third period and put the match out of reach when Eriksson Ek completed his double.