The day after a punishing training session, the Canadian played it safe to close the door defensively, but his attack was a little discreet and the result was the same as in his two previous outings.
Sidney Crosby scored twice and the Pittsburgh Penguins defeated the Montreal hockey club 3-1 on Saturday night at PPG Paints Arena.
The Habs had lost their previous two games by a combined score of 14-5. Head coach Martin St-Louis didn’t hide his anger after the 6-3 loss to the Washington Capitals on Thursday, and he punished his players by making them skate hard during practice the next day.
His players responded with a much better effort. However, a few errors were enough to sink the Canadiens, who suffered a third straight loss.
“I think we were there defensively in the first two periods, but our touches weren’t clean. The puck was bouncing a lot,” St. Louis said. “We left a lot of chances on the table. In the third, our touches were good, but we didn’t score.”
Christian Dvorak was the only goal scorer for the Canadiens (4-7-1), who have lost their last five games (0-3-2) against the Penguins.
“We played better defensively and that’s a positive, but we’re disappointed not to have won after a poor performance,” said defenseman David Savard.
Samuel Montembeault made 21 saves in his first outing since allowing five goals on 10 shots in just over a half-period at the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday.
“I’m happy to have played a good game,” said Montembeault. “Now, I have to continue to work well off the ice, during practice and in my preparation to be consistent.”
Blake Lizotte scored an insurance goal into an empty net and Alex Nedeljkovic stopped 25 shots for the Penguins (5-7-1).
Defender Arber Xhekaj was inserted into the Canadiens’ lineup in place of Justin Barron.
Forward Juraj Slafkovsky missed the final three minutes of the game after being hit in the head when he was hit by Noel Acciari.
The Canadiens will be back in front of their fans on Tuesday, when they host the Calgary Flames at the Bell Centre.
A little better, but…
The first period was relatively quiet, with both teams each having just five shots on goal.
The Penguins got there with 4:03 left. Mike Matheson lost the puck along the boards, then Rickard Rakell connected with Crosby in the slot. The Penguins captain got it right on a wrist shot from the shield side.
The goal came moments after the Habs’ best scoring opportunity. Alex Newhook had found Slafkovsky alone in the slot, but Nedeljkovic made the save.
The second period was more lively. Montembeault made his mark with nice saves against Rakell, then Michael Bunting and Valtteri Puustinen during a two-on-one attack.
At the other end of the ice, Nedeljkovic was alert against Oliver Kapanen, during a man-on-man attack. For his part, Christian Dvorak hit the crossbar while the Canadiens were playing shorthanded.
Moments later, Crosby doubled the Penguins’ lead on the same power play with 1:20 left in the second period. He scored on a wrist shot from the top of the slot, with Montembeault seemingly blinded by Matheson.
“I didn’t like the fact that the refs didn’t call a penalty on the sequence,” St. Louis said. “It looks to me like ‘Suzy’ (Suzuki) gets hit with a stick and loses his stick. When that happens on the penalty kill, it usually leads to a scoring chance.”
The Canadiens played with more bite in the third period and cut the deficit to 5:32 after a couple of nice charges. Dvorak took advantage of his own rebound after a turnover caused by Slafkovsky and a pass from Emil Heineman.
Acciari missed an opportunity to finish off the Canadiens with just over eight minutes left on the clock. The colossus forward hit the far post after going around the back of the net.
The Canadiens then went for one last assault at the end of the game. Nedeljkovic closed the books thanks to good saves against Newhook and Josh Anderson. He also got lucky when Lane Hutson hit the post to his left.
Lizotte finally delivered the final blow with 45 seconds left by scoring into an empty net.
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