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Canadiens @ Golden Knights: Lost Without A Lead | HABS GAME 1 RECAP

Montreal Canadiens vs Vegas Golden Knights Recap: Habs Line-up, Score, Statistics, Highlights, Post-game Interviews, NHL Three-Stars

FINAL | Round 3, Game 1 | Monday June 14, 2021

Golden Knights lead series 1-0

T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, NV

CANADIENS

Montreal

1-4

GOLDEN KNIGHTS

Vegas

(Photo by David Becker/NHLI via Getty Images)

Canadiens Lineup

Forward lines

Tyler Toffoli – Nick Suzuki – Cole Caufield

Artturi Lehkonen – Phillip Danault – Brendan Gallagher

Paul Byron – Jesperi Kotkaniemi – Josh Anderson

Joel Armia – Eric Staal – Corey Perry

Defence pairings

Ben Chiarot – Shea Weber

Brett Kulak – Joel Edmundson

Alexander Romanov – Erik Gustafsson

Goaltenders

Carey Price – Jake Allen

Scratches

Tomas Tatar, Michael Frolik, Charlie Lindgren

Black Aces

Alex Belzile, Laurent Dauphin, Lukas Vejdemo, Jesse Ylonen, Cale Fleury, Otto Leskinen, Xavier Ouellet, Cayden Primeau, Michael McNiven

Injuries

Jonathan Drouin (undisclosed), Jon Merrill (undisclosed), Jake Evans (concussion), Jeff Petry (hand)

Game Report

This game was all about the defence. And that shouldn’t be a surprise. The Vegas Golden Knights, who finished at the top of the league standings this regular season, were also the best defensive team in the NHL. To their credit, the Canadiens had a great start to the game, using their speed and strong forecheck to put the Golden Knights on their heels.

Montreal played with pace, getting shots to the net in the first five minutes. Marc-Andre Fleury was generating a never-ending stream of rebounds but the Golden Knights defence kept the Habs from getting to the blue paint. Vegas’ defence then went to work contributing to the offence by controlling the neutral zone and helping to get pucks behind the Canadiens ‘D’.

Vegas defenceman Shea Theodore scored the game’s opening goal at the 9:15 mark of the first period following a weak neutral zone play by Erik Gustafsson. Three of the Golden Knights’ goals came from defencemen while at the same time they were defending well.

From the middle of the first period through the final buzzer, the Golden Knights controlled the this game. The Canadiens did not record a high danger scoring chance on Fleury in the final 40 minutes of the game.

Price Keeps it Close

Once again, Carey Price was outstanding making miraculous saves on Mark Stone, Jonathan Marchessault, Shea Theodore and others. Vegas dominated the Canadiens in the second period but still had a chance in the third solely because of the spectacular play of Price.

With respect to the Canadiens defence, it was a very difficult night for Brett Kulak and Erik Gustafsson. That spelled trouble for Shea Weber, Ben Chiarot and Joel Edmundson. Chiarot played too many minutes finishing the night at minus-3. Weber looked to further injure his ailing hand taking a stick from Ryan Reaves. Montreal is already missing Jeff Petry who, when he returns, won’t be 100 percent.

The Golden Knights are the heaviest team in the league. They punished the Canadiens all game long. The third line of Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Josh Anderson and Paul Byron could not get on track with Kotkaniemi spending most of the third frame on the bench.

Cole Caufield scored his first goal of the playoffs on the power-play with his family in attendance at T-Mobile Arena.

Up Next

It’s key that the Canadiens get to the net and score first in game two. After not trailing for 447 minutes in the playoffs, the Canadiens looked uncomfortable in playing from behind. The Canadiens will meet the Golden Knights for game two in Las Vegas on Wednesday night. 

Plus

▲  Carey Price, Shea Weber, Corey Perry, Artturi Lehkonen, Cole Caufield

Minus

▼  Brett Kulak, Erik Gustafsson, Josh Anderson, Paul Byron, Ben Chiarot, Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Phillip Danault

Game Preview

Check out the game preview here: Canadiens @ Golden Knights: The Battle Begins | HABS GAME 1 PREVIEW

The Numbers

Game Statistics
CANADIENS   GOLDEN KNIGHTS
29 Shots 30
56 Face-off % 44
1-for-3 Power Play 0-for-4
8 Penalty Minutes 6
52 Hits 44
34 Corsi For 48
Scoring Summary
FINAL 1 2 3 OT SO T
Canadiens (8-4) 0 1 0 1
Golden Knights (9-5) 1 2 1 4
Scorers Goalies
  • MTL: Caufield (1)-PPG
  • VGK: Theodore (1), Martinez (3), Janmark (4), Holden (2)
  • MTL: Price (L) 8-4
  • VGK: Fleury (W) 9-4

Stars of the Game

Official NHL Three Stars
  1. Shea Theodore  VGK
  2. Reilly Smith  VGK
  3. Marc-Andre Fleury  VGK

Watch

Video Highlights

What Did They Say?

Post-game Quotes

Dominique Ducharme

  • “We need our four lines and our six defensemen. We want to be more consistent and we want to be better. We have players who had a good game, while others didn’t. Right now, we can’t allow that to happen. I think our four lines can be more consistent.”

Joel Edmundson

  • “They do a good job of getting pucks through. Their forwards are at the net front. They’ve got some bodies blocking Carey’s view. They jump up in the play. We’ve just got to do a better job taking them away and slowing them down coming up the ice.”

Carey Price

  • “It was a great start. I thought we came out firing. They grabbed the momentum going into the second period. But, I thought in that first period, we showed that we could play with them.”

Cole Caufield

  • “It was pretty special to have [my family] at the game. It was really special just to have them in the same country as I am, honestly. It was a really special feeling. Obviously, it wasn’t the result we wanted, but we’ll be back on Wednesday for more.”

Quotes courtesy of NHL.com

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