Samuel Montembeault slid throughout his crease, sprawled out on his stomach, prolonged his leg and glove and never solely saved consecutive photographs from Macklin Celebrini but additionally saved his Montreal Canadiens from a sixth straight loss.
It was pure desperation, and there was nothing fairly about it, and it preceded the shorthanded break Jake Evans began and Joel Armia completed to place a bow on this ugly win.
Yeah, this was removed from a Picasso from the Canadiens. It wasn’t even a bit of high-quality graffiti on the aspect of a rundown constructing.
However the Canadiens didn’t must submit artwork on this night time, they wanted to submit a win and discover their footing in an Japanese Convention playoff race that was dashing away from them.
It didn’t matter that it got here towards the Thirty second-placed San Jose Sharks. No opponent could be a walkover for the Canadiens — with their confidence plundered by habitually discovering methods to lose over the past two weeks — and the Sharks have been something however one at SAP Middle.
“They didn’t make it straightforward on us,” Canadiens defenceman Lane Hutson informed reporters in attendance. “They by no means gave up, they saved going, so it’s win for certain.”
You’d hope this 4-3 end result, which noticed the Canadiens rating on the ability play, on the penalty kill and at five-on-five, would encourage some confidence for a crew clearly in such determined want of some.
Had it been there all through the primary 55 minutes of play, Montembeault’s stops on Celebrini would’ve merely been highlights somewhat than game-savers.
By the primary two intervals, the Canadiens couldn’t hit a barn — by no means thoughts the within of a hockey internet — with the vast majority of their photographs, as evidenced by them ending with as many off internet (20) as on internet. They struck iron 4 instances and put plenty of their 23 different makes an attempt into shinpads in entrance of them.
Nonetheless, after Brendan Gallagher put them up 3-2 on the ability play 2:40 into the third interval, the Canadiens didn’t permit a shot to get to Montembeault for over 5 minutes and appeared decided to lock this down in a approach they weren’t in a position to in a loss to the Anaheim Geese two days in the past.
However then, growth, Arber Xhekaj acquired beat alongside the wall and took a penalty, and former Canadien Tyler Toffoli made him pay for it with 9:33 remaining within the third interval.
With the rating 3-3 and 6:41 to play within the body, Jayden Struble dumped a puck over the glass to place the Canadiens in place to lose.
Montembeault refused to let it occur, although, stopping the first-overall decide in 2024 from gathering his second purpose and third level of the night time.
“We knew we would have liked an enormous win irrespective of the way it got here,” stated Christian Dvorak,
“and we acquired precisely that.”
The Canadiens may need secured it no less than a minute sooner had any one among Gallagher, Evans or Nick Suzuki been in a position to hit the empty internet with Sharks goaltender Alexandar Georgiev on the bench in favour of an additional attacker, however they nonetheless acquired it in the long run.
“That’s precisely what we would have liked,” stated head coach Martin St. Louis, who added that he emphasised to the Canadiens they wanted to get extra aggressive and settle for the danger that comes with that after some passive performances.
He acquired aggressive, too, placing Josh Anderson with Kirby Dach and Alex Newhook, transferring Patrik Laine over to a line with Evans and Armia, and inserting Owen Beck to play with Dvorak and Gallagher.
All these strikes gave the Canadiens higher momentum from shift to shift and extra vitality to finish the sport.
“It wasn’t good,” stated St. Louis.
He’d agree it wasn’t fairly, both.
However the coach additionally famous the trouble was there, and we predict he’d additionally agree Montembeault’s determined saves on the finish epitomized that effort.
The Canadiens might want to couple that very same degree of effort with higher execution towards the Kings in Los Angeles Wednesday to return out with a win and return to Montreal nearer to the combo they tumbled out of with this current skid.
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