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In Hainsight: Team Effort Leads to Spectacular Win |
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Follow me @KarineHains for all updates about the Montreal Canadiens and women's hockey
It had been a good long while since Montreal had managed to beat Boston, some headlines this morning tell you the Canadiens hadn’t beaten the Bruins in four years, but that’s a bit misleading as there were a couple of covid shortened seasons which meant the two teams couldn’t play each other. It’s more accurate to say that the Bostonians had won the last 10 duels between the two teams.
As usual, the Bruins drew first blood, scoring the first goal of the game just 36 seconds in, sucking out all the air of the Bell Center for a second after which the hordes of Boston fans celebrated loudly. Never in my life had I seen so many fans of an opposing team in the CH’s lair. All through the first period, the “Let’s go Bruins” chants could be heard from left, right and center. The Montreal crowd seemed subdued only booing whenever super pest Brad Marchand touched the puck.
If the Bruins had succeeded in subduing the crowd, they hadn’t done the same to the Habs. Martin St-Louis’ team took the first goal in its stride, put on their working boots (or skates but you get the picture), rolled up their sleeves and managed to dominated Boston for the rest of the game.
Montreal just couldn’t beat the stellar goaltending of Jeremy Swayman until the start of the third when Nick Suzuki scored a power play marker from what is fast becoming his office on the power play. Seconds later, Brendan Gallagher knocked on the door before squeezing the puck in on a tremendous individual effort diving to reach it. Just like that, the Canadiens took the lead, and the local crowd awoke from its deep slumber and cheered just as loudly as the Bruins supporters had two periods ago.
Taking the lead against Boston doesn’t Boston doesn’t mean you’ll be able to hold it though. Boston though they had equalized, but the goal was waived off for goaltender interference which came as a nice surprise for the locals. Soon enough though, Marchand redirected a puck in with his skates and that one stood. After 60 minutes, both team were tied 2-2 and off to overtime they went.
Gone are the days when Claude Julien used to send his best defensive players out on the three on three, St-Louis plays to win and that he did. For once, it wasn’t Cole Caufield who buried the winner, but Kaiden Guhle who saw an opportunity come to him with the puck coming to him in the slot and, as he said, he only had to put it on net which he did, sending the fans in a frenzy of cheers and gloating to the numerous fans wearing the black and gold.
Samuel Montembeault ended his evening with 26 saves including a few spectacular ones which earned him the first star of the game. Elliotte Friedman mentioned last night that the Canadiens are currently pushing hard to ink Monteambault to an extension, information which the netminder confirmed himself. Brad Marchand and Kaiden Guhle were the second and third star respectively and it was truly deserved as they both got a goal and an assist on the night.
We would have needed a fourth star for Gallagher thought, he was everywhere on the ice including in Jeremy Swayman’s kitchen and head, on a play where he crashed the net, the Canadiens’ little pest got himself a couple of blocker punches by the Bruins netminder who threw his mask off and invited Montembeault to fight, an invitation that was ignored. Coming back to Gally, he took 5 shots on goal and made the most ouf of his 13 odd minutes of ice time.
On the blue line, Mike Matheson had a few brain farts through the match, turning the puck over four times, but he did block five shots while Kaiden Guhle also stopped four. Juraj Slafkovsky was once again held off the score sheet, but he did work tirelessly, landing four hits on Bostonians.
Overall, this game was one of the best ones I’ve seen them play since St-Louis took over, if this is the style of hockey he’s teaching them, praise the lord, because that’s one entertaining brand of hockey. The Canadiens will have little time to back in the own glory as they’ll be back in action tonight at the Bell Center taking on another good team, the Vancouver Canucks at 7:00 PM.
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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