Cole Caufield broke the tie in the third period, in addition to collecting an assist, Kirby Dach scored twice and the Montreal team defeated the Utah Hockey Club 5-3 on Tuesday at the Delta Center.
The Habs shot themselves in the foot by going on a merry-go-round in the penalty box in the first period. However, he erased two one-goal deficits to finally win for the 10th time in 13 outings (10-2-1).
“We spoke honestly to each other,” said defender Mike Matheson about the first intermission in the Canadian locker room. We knew it wasn’t the type of hockey we wanted to play. We had taken way too many punishments.
“We had to regain our concentration and know that we could no longer change anything during this period. We just had to get our game back,” added the author of a goal and an assist.
St-Louis was therefore happy to see its players able to take matters into their own hands after a difficult period.
“I didn’t have much to say and it’s good when your group works like that,” St-Louis said.
“We took four penalties in the first, but we weren’t too upset since it was only 2-1. The positive thing was that there were 40 minutes of play left. We repaired ourselves very quickly,” he added.
Patrik Laine also hit the target for the Canadian (21-18-4). Lane Hutson had three assists and Alexandre Carrier had two. Samuel Montembeault stopped 22 shots.
Josh Doan, Nick Bjugstad and Logan Cooley responded for Utah HC (18-18-7). Nick Schmaltz and Clayton Keller each had two assists and Karel Vejmelka stopped 21 shots.
The Canadian was without forward Emil Heineman, who suffered an upper-body injury when he was struck by a vehicle Monday afternoon. The team said he will miss three to four weeks. Michael Pezzetta took his place in the lineup.
The Habs will play their next game on Thursday, when they visit the Dallas Stars.
In three stages
The match started off badly for the Canadian. Pezzetta was punished 29 seconds into the game and Matheson joined him 35 seconds later.
Montembeault stopped the home team’s first onslaught, but Doan finally scored on a five-on-three at 2:11, capitalizing on a comeback.
Probably wanting to redeem himself, Matheson quickly tied the game at 3:18. He broke through Utah’s defense in the neutral zone and sped alone toward Vejmelka, who he beat between the pads.
The rest of the period was all about Utah, who had a 14-3 advantage in shots on goal.
Utah regained the lead with 53.1 seconds left in the period, just after a Dach penalty ended. Bjugstad threaded the needle between the post and Montembeault’s back.
It was the world turned upside down in the second period, while Utah HC was the undisciplined team and the Canadian was the one who accumulated the shots on goal.
Vejmelka stopped the Canadian’s first charges, frustrating Nick Suzuki in particular, alone in front of him. The Czech goalkeeper was also lucky when Alex Newhook and Kaiden Guhle hit the posts within a matter of seconds.
Laine finally tied the game 2-2 at 10:40. He scored his 10th goal of the season, and his first in numerical equality, by completing a nice exchange that he had started by ceding the disc behind to Carrier at the entrance to the zone. Carrier then passed to Newhook, who joined Laine with a nice cross pass.
It was Laine’s 400th career NHL point in his 495th game.
Dach then gave the Canadian the lead for the first time in the match with 1:26 remaining, while the teams were playing four against four. He rushed to the net and beat Vejmelka with a nice feint and a backhand shot.
The third period finally resulted in more balanced play between the two teams.
Cooley brought everyone back to square one 3:07 into the third period. A shot from Keller deflected in his direction and he surprised Montembeault, caught a little on the wrong foot.
Caufield gave the Canadian the lead again at 6:33, deflecting a perfect throw from Hutson into the goal.
Jake Evans had a golden opportunity to deliver the final blow when the referees awarded him a penalty shot with 6:39 remaining. Vejmelka, however, closed the door.
Vejmelka looked bad, however, when he was unable to stop a long wrist shot from Dach with 3:45 left on the clock.
