Canadiens Lineup

Forward lines  

Jonathan Drouin – Max Domi – Andrew Shaw

Tomas Tatar – Phillip Danault – Brendan Gallagher

Paul Byron – Jesperi Kotkaniemi – Artturi Lehkonen

Kenny Agostino – Michael Chaput – Nicolas Deslauriers

Defense pairings

Brett Kulak – Shea Weber

David Schlemko – Jeff Petry

Jordie Benn – Noah Juulsen

Goaltenders

Antti Niemi – Carey Price

Scratches

Mike Reilly, Charles Hudon, Matthew Peca

Injuries

Joel Armia

Game Report

The Wild were reeling coming into this game, having lost five of their past six contests. Minnesota had scored just 13 goals in those six games and goaltender Devan Dubnyk was struggling.

But the Canadiens were on their own streak having lost eight straight games in Minnesota. Coming into the third game of the road trip, Montreal had already picked up four points. But Carey Price was the reason that the Habs had won the first two games, and he was giving way to Antti Niemi for a road start at the Xcel Energy Center.

Minnesota dominated the first ten minutes of the game. And once the first period ended, the Habs were fortunate to be down just one goal. But the Wild scored four times in the second period. The back-breaker was a short-handed goal by Charlie Coyle. Essentially, the game was over with seven-and-a-half minutes left in the middle frame.

It was not a good performance by Niemi who gave up all seven goals. Niemi has struggled for most of his eight starts this year pushing his season goals against average to 4.14.

The Canadiens lost the special teams battle giving up the short-handed goal to Coyle and allowing the Wild to be a perfect four-for-four on the power-play. Canadiens centre Phillip Danault was on for five of the seven Minnesota goals.

Plus / Minus

▲  Carey Price

▼  Antti Niemi, Phillip Danault, Jeff Petry, Michael Chaput, Paul Byron, Nicolas Deslauriers, Brett Kulak, David Schlemko