Goaltender Samuel Montembeault blocked all 30 pucks aimed at him and the Canadian scored one of his best victories this season, 3-0 against the Edmonton Oilers on Monday evening at the Bell Centre.
Brendan Gallagher, his eighth this season, scored the eventual victorious goal during the last minute of play in the middle period.
Kaiden Guhle, who many spectators thought was seriously injured earlier in the match, added the insurance net against Calvin Pickard, author of 23 saves.
Jake Evans added an empty-net goal with just over three minutes left in the game.
Montembeault made the key saves and benefited from constant support from all his teammates.
This collective work allowed him to sign the third career shutout, and his second this season after the one achieved in the opening game against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The Canadian players will enjoy a rather calm week since they will play their next game only on Saturday, at the Bell Center, against the Vegas Golden Knights.
A scare for Guhle
Failing to produce goals, the first period was marked by some spectacular moments.
Early in the period, McDavid made the crowd react by performing a masterful feint that completely stunned Cole Caufield just inside the Canadiens’ zone and gave the Oilers a great chance to score.
Shortly after, it was Lane Hutson’s turn to show all the colors to a rival, in this case Connor Brown, who ended up tripping the young Canadian defender, a gesture for which he was punished.
Furthermore, the middle of the period was also marked by a worrying sequence for supporters of the Canadian.
The Oilers had been in Habs territory for several seconds and had caused a delayed penalty when Evan Bouchard unleashed a powerful shot that hit Guhle in the left wrist area.
After play was stopped and Josh Anderson’s infraction was reported, Guhle could be seen heading towards the locker room at full speed.
He missed the rest of the period, but returned to the game early in the second period.
It was Guhle who got the Canadian’s first good scoring chance during the middle period, with 1:39 to play. However, Pickard stopped the Canadian defender’s shot from the top of the left faceoff circle.
A little over a minute later, however, Gallagher scored the first goal of the game. He deflected a Mike Matheson shot into the upper right of the net.
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Brendan Gallagher
Photo: The Canadian Press / Christine Muschi
This goal from Gallagher was the 226th of his career, which allowed him to join his former teammate Max Pacioretty in 18th place in Canadian history.
It was also the seventh of his career against his hometown team, in 22 games.
Guhle doubled the Habs’ lead at 5:52 of the third period with a shot high on the near side that Pickard didn’t look too well on.
This goal was also made possible by a great effort from Caufield, who won a battle for the puck against Leon Draisaitl.
Some five minutes after this second Habs goal, Montembeault made a nice save with his right pad on a backhand shot from Jeff Skinner.
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Samuel Montembeault stands in front of Jeff Skinner.
Photo: The Canadian Press / Christine Muschi
The Canadian continued with a dominant sequence in the Oilers zone, for about a minute, to the point of forcing Brett Kulak to take a penalty for hooking Juraj Slafkovsky.
Desperate, the Oilers pulled Pickard in favor of a sixth skater with 4:52 remaining.
This decision allowed Evans to seal the outcome of the match.
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