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Finding Ways to Lose | RECAP: VGK @ MTL

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

FINAL | Game 13, Home Game 7 | Saturday November 6, 2021
Bell Centre, Montreal, QC

CANADIENS

Montreal

2-5

GOLDEN KNIGHTS

Vegas

Jake Allen, David Savard (Photo by Francois Lacasse/NHLI via Getty Images)

Canadiens Lineup

Forward lines

Tyler Toffoli – Nick Suzuki – Brendan Gallagher

Mike Hoffman – Jake Evans – Josh Anderson

Artturi Lehkonen – Christian Dvorak – Joel Armia

Michael Pezzetta – Cedric Paquette – Alex Belzile

Defence pairings

Ben Chiarot – Jeff Petry

Brett Kulak – David Savard

Alexander Romanov – Chris Wideman

Goaltenders

Jake Allen – Sam Montembeault

Scratches

Sami Niku, Adam Brooks

Injuries

Jonathan Drouin (upper body), Mathieu Perreault (eye), Joel Edmundson (undisclosed), Carey Price (player assistance program), Paul Byron (hip), Shea Weber (multiple injuries)

Game Report

For the first twenty minutes, the Montreal Canadiens dominated a Vegas Golden Knights team decimated by injury. No Mark Stone. No Max Pacioretty. No William Karlsson. And while a blockbuster trade was made this week, no Jack Eichel, yet.

Shots on goal were 20-1 for Montreal with the home side taking a 2-0 lead into the first intermission. What could possibly go wrong?

Early in the second period, a puck over the glass penalty sent Ben Chiarot to the box. No problem. Vegas had not scored with the man advantage in 19 opportunities, the only team in the NHL without a power-play goal this season.

Eleven seconds later, the Golden Knights were on the board as Alex Pietrangelo beat Jake Allen with a short side shot. Just like that Vegas had solved it’s power-play issues against the 30th ranked penalty-kill in the league.

From that point, the fragile Canadiens collapsed. Jonathan Marchessault scored with Allen out of position, having overplayed the point shot. And with eight minutes left in the second, the awakened Vegas power-play scored its second goal of the period to take the lead for good.

After managing just one shot on goal in the first period, the Golden Knights scored five unanswered goals. Of note, Christian Dvorak was on the ice for each of the five goals against. 

It could have been worse

After the start the team had tonight, it was a devastating loss. Not only that, it was a very historic loss. The 2021-’22 edition of the Montreal Canadiens is off to the worst start in franchise history. 

That’s a lot of teams in the 112 year history of the organization. And this start is the worst. The record happened under the watch of Geoff Molson. And he owns it.

To allow the team to continuing to go forward into futility without changes is cruel. And to expect that Carey Price will be the savior once again for a management-created mess is irresponsible.

All of the half steps have been attempted with no change. The Canadiens organization is at a crossroads. Will there be decisive action?

Up Next

The Canadiens host the Los Angeles Kings in the fourth game of this homestand on Tuesday night at the Bell Centre.

Plus

▲  Nick Suzuki, Artturi Lehkonen, Joel Armia, Alexander Romanov

Minus

▼  Christian Dvorak, David Savard, Mike Hoffman, Brett Kulak, Jake Allen, Brendan Gallagher, Cedric Paquette

Game Preview

Check out the game preview here: Playoff Semifinal Rematch | PREVIEW: VGK @ MTL

The Numbers

Game Statistics
CANADIENS   GOLDEN KNIGHTS
38 Shots 18
50 Face-off % 50
1-for-4 Power Play 2-for-2
8 Penalty Minutes 12
33 Hits 18
50 Corsi For 32
Scoring Summary
FINAL 1 2 3 OT SO T
Canadiens (3-10-0) 2 0 0 2
Golden Knights (6-5-0) 0 3 2 5
Scorers Goalies
  • MTL: Suzuki (3)-PPG, Toffoli (3)
  • VGK: Pietrangelo (2)-PPG, Marchessault (5), Coghlan (1)-PPG, Stephenson (5), McNabb (1) 
  • MTL: Allen (L) (3-8-0)
  • VGK: Lehner (W) (5-5-0)

Stars of the Game

Official NHL Three Stars
  1. Alex Pietrangelo  VGK
  2. Nick Suzuki  MTL
  3. Robin Lehner  VGK

Watch

Video Highlights

What Did They Say?

Post-game Quotes

Dominique Ducharme

  • “Basically, they took advantage of their chances and I think we deserved better.”
  • “We are going to practice on Monday and prepare for the game on Tuesday. We’re going to make sure we have such a good start and an even better game.”

Jake Allen

  • “It’s hard to say we have to hold our head up high, but we have to do it. In the last three games we’ve played the right way most of the time. Now we have to find a way to win.”

Nick Suzuki

  • “We got in trouble last season at the start when ‘Dom’ took over, but it paid off in the end! We know we can play well and I trust each of the guys in the locker room. We dominated [the Golden Knights], but their goalie made some good saves. The result could have been different.”

Quotes courtesy of NHL.com

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