Canadiens @ Golden Knights Top Six Minutes: Habs turn solid effort into third straight win

First period

• The first great chance of the game wasn’t really a chance at all. Cole Caufield was at a sharp angle to a square Akira Schmid, but fired a shot off the post.
• Samuel Montembeault doesn’t look comfortable, and is still sliding too far out of position on his pushes, but he’s stopped the first two pucks that came his way.
• Breakout passes aren’t accurate enough, and the Golden Knights are picking them off easily.
• Mike Matheson puts the puck right on the stick of Mark Stone in the offensive zone, then takes slashing penalty on the rush that ensues. Not a good shift from the man who signed a five-year extension today.
• I don’t understand why the team has gone back to a diamond formation on the penalty kill. Even when David Savard was lying on the ice last year, there was someone at the opposite post. Noah Dobson is trying to defend three players right now.
• Two good stops by Montembeault on shots from the slot.
• Shots are 9-1 Las Vegas through 12 minutes. Montreal needs to wake up.
• The Habs add a couple from the point with the top line on the ice.
• The aggressive forecheck from the Golden Knights is too strong as Nick Suzuki gets tripped in his own end.
• Montreal doesn’t even need a power-play, however, because they go to work at six-on-five. A nice move from Juraj Slafkovský to move past a defender and an even better pass across the ice tees up Zachary Bolduc for his sixth goal of the season and fourth point on this road trip.

Juraj Slafkovsky threads it to Zack Bolduc and Bolduc buries it!

1-0 Habs

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— Scott Matla (@scottmatla.bsky.social) November 28, 2025 at 5:34 PM

• Montembeault is getting a little sharper as the game goes on. Glancing up at the scoreboard and seeing a zero for the home side has to be a confidence boost for him.
• Slafkovský is again at the centre of the play as the second line gets a great setup from Ivan Demidov to Oliver Kapanen for a point-blank shot. Schmid made the save, but just had the puck hit him.
• Kapanen gets a breakaway to end the shift, but Schmid robs his a second time.
• The top line with the Lane Hutson-Jayden Struble pairing puts together a shift that looks like a power play, with a couple more looks.
• Perhaps the Golden Knights are trying too hard to tie the game, because Jake Evans almost has a breakaway of his own. Alexandre Texier, playing his first game as a Canadien, just couldn’t find his stick with the pass.
• The puck gets into Matheson’s feet, and Las Vegas gets one more chance before the horn sounds.
• After a lethargic start, Montreal looked much better after opening the scoring. But we all know the second period will be the most important one played today.

Second period

• Texier has been too slow in moving the puck today, but we can’t know if that’s a flaw in his game or just a product of this being his first game in almost a month, and with a new team.
• Montembeault is looking more confident with each save.
• The linesman spends about 15 seconds lecturing both teams on faceoff etiquette, and we can get back under way.
• Caufield plays a tune off the iron early in the second period, but this time it’s off the crossbar and in. Just incredible precision from where he was on the ice. A good effort from Alexandre Carrier to keep the puck in at the blue line to allow that play to happen.

Absolutely disgusting snipe by Cole Caufield, big shout out to Alexandre Carrier for keeping that puck alive in the OZ

2-0 Habs!

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— Scott Matla (@scottmatla.bsky.social) November 28, 2025 at 6:09 PM

• Dobson drives right to the net trying to make it 3-0. Schmid makes the save as the defence parts in front of him.
• Florian Xhekaj forced Schmid into a tough save by setting a screen for a point shot. He also added a shot the next time the puck got into the zone.
• Zach Whitecloud is hunched over as the Golden Knights finally get the puck out of their zone, and the referee blows the play dead to check on the defenceman. It looks like he took a puck in the mouth.
• A little bobble from the old Montembeault spills a rebound to his left, but fortunately for him no one is standing right there to capitalize.
• The linesman calls an offside even though it looked like Hutson held the puck in. Maybe the young defenceman needs to hold his own lecture on offside etiquette.
• A wild sequence that sees chances at both ends has Matheson walk into a shot inside the blue line, and Suzuki pokes the rebound over to Caufield, who is denied by Schmid’s pad.
• Keegan Kolesar gets too close to Montembeault after he froze the puck. Arber Xhekaj and Joe Veleno team up for the takedown. Xhekaj and Kolesar head to the box.
• Four-on-four probably favours the trailing team here. We’ll see how Montreal handles it.
• The answer is that Hutson will see all the open space and decide to put on his own Vegas show. After about 30 seconds of puck possession, he hands off to Suzuki, and it’s another great chance for Caufield.
• Suzuki literally fights off an interfering defender in the neutral zone to set up a breakaway for Caufield. Caufield is denied. He could easily have four or five goals right now.
• Schmid makes a save through an Evans screen. They’re really trying to extend the lead here, and that’s what you like to see as long as they’re not over-extending.
• As I finished tying that, Carrier got caught at the offensive blue line and forced Arber to defend a two-on-one. Montreal escaped unscathed.
• Evans does get his breakaway. Schmid makes another save. But Ben Hutton threw the rebound over the glass, and Montreal gets a late power play to really put a stamp on this second-period effort.
• A little too loose to get any chances, but they will start the third with about 1:10 of PP time.
• The Golden Knights has 11 shots to Montreal’s five, but the Habs did well to prevent much in the way of dangerous chances.

Third period

• Well at least they drained a minute off the clock. They weren’t close to get a shot on net on the power play.
• Now an icing at the two-minute mark. They can’t just sit back and hope to survive this period. They got to this point by keeping the Golden Knights on their heels.
• The third time is the charm for Evans. He missed out on a first-period breakaway, was stopped on one in the second, but now converts on one created by a great defensive-zone play from Matheson and a nice pass from Texier in the neutral zone for his first Habs point.

Mike Matheson with the great clearing pass and Alexandre Texier feed Jake Evans for a breakaway goal

Habs up 3-0!

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— Scott Matla (@scottmatla.bsky.social) November 28, 2025 at 7:08 PM

• Montembeault makes a save through traffic. In recent games that would have been a goal and an immediate erasure of the insurance marker.
• Bolduc is now starting to understand where his teammates are on the ice. He’s making plays and not just tossing the puck around the boards like he did when he first got promoted.
• And the second line is also playing great tonight, led by Slafkovský. It’s a good top six, especially considering the injuries the Habs are dealing with.
• One shot on net for the Golden Knights through eight-and-a-half minutes, versus six for Montreal. Excellent defence.
• Demidov has a great backcheck to keep a three-on-two from forming. The Golden Knights are limited to another shot from distance instead.
• I’ve liked what I’ve seen from Texier. He is at least a more dynamic player than Veleno.
• Florian gets a block and the puck bounces out to the neutral zone to end Vegas’s first real pressure of the period.
• At the other end, Bolduc tips a shot on Schmid as the Habs recover with the top line on the ice.
• A spectacular breakdown on defence has all five skaters go to the boards, leaving Mark Stone with the slot to himself. He has time to complete a series of dekes before putting his team on the board.
• Now Montembeault can’t allow that goal get to him. Five more minutes to play.
• Jack Eichel almost throws the puck into his own empty net. That would have been embarrassing.
• Better for Slafkovský to do it. He deserves it after another solid outing. 4-1 Montreal with two minutes to go.
• Also, fourth consecutive game with four goals.
• A very faint “Olé!” chant rings out at T-Mobile Arena as the horn sounds on Montreal’s third consecutive win.
• Off to Colorado to try to make this a perfect trip.

EOTP 3 Stars

3) (Don’t say that out loud, they’ll hear you)

2) This is what I’m thankful for

1) That would have required Marner to touch the puck. I barely noticed him before the Stone goal