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Makes 34 saves in 4-2 win over Jets as Habs remain in fourth place in North Division, two points ahead of Calgary Flames at midway point.
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Monday night’s game didn’t start out well for the Canadiens, but it had a very good ending with a 4-2 victory over the Jets in Winnipeg.
The Canadiens got off to another slow start and were outshot 4-0 by the Jets in the first 2:19 of the game as they struggled to get the puck out of their own end. But they made the most of their first shot at 4:01 of the first period when Jesperi Kotkaniemi scored on a beautiful tic-tac-toe play, set up by Josh Anderson and Jonathan Drouin.
Anderson gave the Canadiens some breathing room when he scored a power-play goal at 5:33 of the second period to go up 2-0. Kyle Connor put the Jets on the board with a power-play goal at 8:08 of the second period, but Tyler Toffoli restored the Canadiens two-goal lead at the 19:13 mark.
Connor scored his second power-play goal at 5:47 of the third period, before Toffoli clinched the Canadiens victory with an empty-net goal at the 19:12 mark.
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Toffoli (17) and Anderson (11) — GM Marc Bergevin’s two biggest additions to the team during the off-season — have now combined for 28 goals in 28 games. That works out to 31 per cent of the 90 goals the Canadiens have scored this season.
Toffoli is now tied with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl of the Edmonton Oilers for second in the NHL in goals, trailing only the Toronto Maple Leafs’ Auston Matthews, who has 21. Toffoli’s career high in goals is the 31 he scored with the Los Angeles Kings in 2015-16. If this was a regular 82-game season, Toffoli would be on pace for 50 goals. Anderson’s career high for goals is the 27 he scored with the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2018-19. If this was an 82-game season, Anderson would be on pace for 32 goals.
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Toffoli, Anderson, Jeff Petry (11) and Brendan Gallagher (10) have combined to score 54 per cent of the Canadiens’ goals this season.
“The first couple of shifts we were kind of hemmed in our own zone there,” Anderson said after Monday night’s game. “But I thought we competed tonight. The full effort from everybody was there tonight and it was a huge two points. We needed that to get back on track and we just got to follow up next game.”
The Canadiens improved their record to 13-8-7 at the midway point of the 56-game NHL season and they remain in fourth place in the North Division, two points ahead of the Calgary Flames (14-12-3), who beat the Edmonton Oilers 4-3 Monday night. The Canadiens hold one game in hand on Calgary with the top four teams in the division making the playoffs.
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Milestone game for Price
Goalie Carey Price was the star of this game, making 34 saves as the Jets outshot the Canadiens 36-31.
Price has allowed only nine goals in his last six games while posting a 4-1-1 record. His season record is now 9-5-4 with a 2.58 goals-against average and a .909 save percentage.
It was the 700th career regular-season game for Price, by far the most of any Canadiens goalie. Jacques Plante is second on the team’s career games played list with 556, followed by Patrick Roy with 551 and Ken Dryden with 397.
Price’s 357 career wins are also the most in Canadiens history, ahead of Plante (314), Roy (289) and Dryden (258).
“He stood in there all night for us,” Anderson said about Price. “He played absolutely amazing and what a milestone for him tonight to get that win.”
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Price really struggled earlier this season, which resulted in goalie coach Stéphane Waite getting fired after the second period of a game at the Bell Centre on March 2 that the Canadiens ended up winning 3-1 over the Ottawa Senators. Sean Burke was name the team’s new director of goaltending.
“He’s been really good now for the last few weeks, for sure,” Canadiens defenceman Brett Kulak said about Price. “When he gets feeling good it seems like nothing’s going by him. So it’s nice having him back there. He’s a leader on our team and he kind of sets the tone when he makes some big saves and he’s making good plays stopping the puck behind the net and making some good passes to us so we can get some breakouts done easy. It kind of boosts the whole morale of the team. When you see him come to play like that it makes you want to elevate your game.”
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Price ranks third in career games played among active goalies, trailing Marc-André Fleury of the Vegas Golden Knights (866) and Ryan Miller of the Anaheim Ducks (788).
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Changes on blue line
Canadiens coach Dominique Ducharme made some changes on defence for Monday’s game with Xavier Ouellet taking Victor Mete’s spot in the lineup.
Ducharme put Ouellet with Alexander Romanov on the third defence pairing, while Joel Edmundson was paired with Shea Weber and Kulak played with Petry.
Kulak and Petry were partners during the post-season last year, but Petry had been paired with newcomer Edmundson since the start of this season while Kulak was with Romanov.
“He’s a phenomenal player,” Kulak said about Petry. “We’ve always had success when we’ve played together, so it feels good being back with him. Our play just kind of meshes good. I enjoy playing with him. Things went good tonight and it was a big win and hopefully we can keep building on it.”
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For Ouellet it was his first game this season with the Canadiens after joining the team’s taxi squad before the start of this six-game road trip, which wraps up Wednesday night when the Canadiens play the Jets again. In eight games with the AHL’s Laval Rocket this season, Ouellett had 1-1-2 totals and was minus-1.
“I thought they were good,” Kulak said about the Romanov-Ouellet pairing. “One nice thing that I like playing with Romy is he’s very assertive in his play and he’s never hesitant in between on stuff. He plays hard and he kills plays quick. He gets the puck and he gets it moving. So I thought he did the same thing tonight.”
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Changes up front
Ducharme also made some changes to his forward lines with centres Kotkaniemi and Nick Suzuki changing places.
Kotkaniemi played between Jonathan Drouin and Anderson, while Suzuki was with Toffoli and Gallagher. The third line of Phillip Danault between Tomas Tatar and Joel Armia remained intact, while centre Jake Evans returned to the lineup after being a healthy scratch for the last game and was between Paul Byron and Corey Perry.
Artturi Lehkonen was made a healthy scratch for the seventh time this season.
“He’s very clear,” Drouin said about what Ducharme expects from his players. “He knows when there’s something not working on the ice, if it’s a system or something that we’re doing, he’s quick to change that and reading off the other team.
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“Everything’s clear for us,” Drouin added. “We’re changing little things as we go on during the game. He’s talking on the bench, he’s talking in the room, and I think everyone’s on the same page. That’s the biggest thing for a hockey team. If you’re on the same page, you know what you have to do in every zone, you’re going to have success. He has stuff we want to do every game and Dom makes sure we do them.”
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Gallagher misses penalty shot
Gallagher was awarded a penalty shot at 12:11 of the second period, but his shot was stopped by Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck.
During an interview with TSN’s Sara Orlesky in the second intermission, Gallagher was asked if he knew what he was going to do when he started skating in on Hellebuyck.
“I took a little bit of time to think about it,” he said. “Maybe I should have come up with something else. But I’m 0-for-3 on those damn things in my career. So I don’t know, maybe try and score on the breakaway instead.”
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Some stats
The Jets outshot the Canadiens 36-31 and outhit them 33-22 while winning 52 per cent of the faceoffs. The Canadiens went 1-for-2 on the power play, while the Jes were 2-for-3.
Petry led the Canadiens in ice time with 25:04, followed by Weber with 23:18 and Kulak with 21:05. Suzuki led the forwards with 18:09 of ice time, followed by Danault with 17:25 and Kotkaniemi with 16:41.
Toffoli had a team-leading six shots, while Gallagher and Anderson had four each. Petry, Romanov and Ouellet had three hits each.
Kotkaniemi went 8-7 on faceoffs (53 per cent), Danault went 12-12 (50 per cent), Suzuki went 9-10 (47 per cent) and Evans went 1-6 (14 per cent).
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What’s next?
The Canadiens will play the Jets again Wednesday night in Winnipeg (9 p.m., TSN2, RDS, TSN 690 Radio, 98.5 FM), before returning to Montreal for six straight games at the Bell Centre.
The Canadiens will have back-to-back games against the Vancouver Canucks Friday (7 p.m., TSN2, RDS, TSN 690 Radio, 98.5 FM) and Saturday (7 p.m., CBC, CITY, TVA Sports, TSN 690 Radio, 98.5 FM) at the Bell Centre.
scowan@postmedia.com
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