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RECAP | Canadiens – Blues: Habs Win Back-to-Back First Time This Season

Montreal Canadiens vs St. Louis Blues Game Recap: Habs Line-up, Score, Statistics, Highlights, Post-game Interviews, NHL Three-Stars

FINAL | Game 8, Away Game 4 | Saturday October 19, 2019
Enterprise Center, St. Louis, MO

CANADIENS

Montreal

5-2

BLUES

St. Louis

Jesperi Kotkaniemi (Photo by Bill Boyce/AP)

Canadiens Lineup

Forward lines

Tomas Tatar – Phillip Danault – Brendan Gallagher

Artturi Lehkonen – Max Domi – Jordan Weal 

Jonathan Drouin – Jesperi Kotkaniemi – Paul Byron 

Nick Cousins – Nate Thompson – Nick Suzuki

Defence pairings

Victor Mete – Shea Weber

Brett Kulak – Jeff Petry

Ben Chiarot – Christian Folin

Goaltenders

Carey Price – Keith Kinkaid

Scratches

Mike Reilly, Cale Fleury, Joel Armia

Injuries

 

Game Report

Many NHL players despise afternoon games. But not Carey Price. ‘I’d like more of them,’ said Price following a superb 32-save performance in a matinee match against the reigning Stanley Cup champions.

Price was outstanding as the Blues dominated possession at home robbing Sammy Blais, Vince Dunn and handling all six shots from Alex Pietrangelo.

It was the second period that Montreal broke the game open as Brendan Gallagher scored right off the the faceoff, just six seconds into the frame. Blues goaltender Jake Allen clearly wasn’t ready for the weak shot from the blue line describing the moment as taking “the wind out of our sails.” The Habs scored twice more in the period, shutting down the Blues in the third for the victory.

The Canadiens special teams deserve praise with the power-play going 2-for-5 and the penalty-kill was perfect. Coming into the game, Montreal had scored a power-play goal in every game this season, except a week ago against the Blues. They fixed that stat  today ending a streak of 15 straight kills by St. Louis.

With two wins over the Blues in a week, the Canadiens have swept the season series for the first time since 2014-15.

Montreal has now earned back-to-back wins for the first time this season. The Canadiens are back on the ice again Sunday in Minnesota with a 5 pm. rematch against the Wild.

Plus / Minus

▲  Carey Price, Artturi Lehkonen, Jordan Weal, Phillip Danault, Shea Weber

▼  Christian Folin, Nick Cousins

The Numbers

 Game Statistics 
CANADIENS   BLUES
25 Shots 34
41 Face-off % 59
2-for-5 Power Play 0-for-3
6 Penalty Minutes 10
12 Hits 16
34 Corsi For 52
 Scoring Summary
 FINAL 1 2 3 OT SO T
 Canadiens (4-2-2) 1 3 1 5
 Blues (3-2-3) 1 0 1 2
Scorers Goalies
  • MTL: Weal (2)-PPG, Gallagher (4), Drouin (3)-PPG, Suzuki (2), Weber (1)-ENG
  • STL: Schwartz (1), Perron (4)
  • MTL: Price (W) 4-2-1
  • STL: Allen (L) 1-1-0

Stars of the Game

 NHL Official Three Stars
  1. Carey Price  MTL
  2. Jonathan Drouin  MTL
  3. Nick Suzuki  MTL

Watch

 Video Highlights 

What Did They Say?

 Post-game Quotes
Claude Julien  
  • “There’s no doubt. We’ve been saying it all along, we need our power play to be better this year. We worked on it. Guys seems to have better chemistry, having been together more or less for over a year now. We had a good start to it, the confidence is there, and we’ve just got to stay on top of it.”
  • “Nick Suzuki continues to improve every game and gain confidence. We see the quality of his game more and more. He’s a player with a good hockey IQ. He’s really intelligent. He’s really alert. Those are gifts you have as a hockey player. He positions himself well. He does good work. Eventually we’re going to have a very complete player.”
Brendan Gallagher
  • “[The power-play] is just simplified. We said it all last year. When you lose your confidence like we had last year, everything slows down – and when it slows down, the penalty killers are able to react. And this year I think we’ve just simplified it. Everyone has a job, everyone knows what they’re supposed to do, and things just seem to happen quicker. That’s usually when you can find some seams and find some lanes, and we were able to put a few in the net.”

Quotes courtesy of NHL.com

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