Canadiens recover to get the win

First period

• The teams are playing with a lot of energy, but not a lot of purpose early. Trading possession with no real attack.
• Josh Anderson gets the first shot of the game about four minutes in by using his speed to back off the defence before cutting into the middle for a shot.
• The line of Florian Xhekaj, Jake Evans, and Anderson gets a hard forecheck going and forces goaltender Karel Vejmelka to pounce on the puck and get a whistle.
• Maybe St-Louis recognized that that is the line going the best, because he has the whiteboard out drawing up some strategy for it.
• The Mammoth get some good pressure, but that all comes to an end when Jack McBain trips up Lane Hutson after falling down.
• Hutson got a good shot off from the top of the circles, but not with enough velocity to solve Vejmelka.
• An excellent zone entry from Cole Caufield catches the Mammoth sleeping as the expect a drop-pass (Montreal is starting to do that more often), and a quick hand-off allows Hutson to walk in, but his pass across to Caufield doesn’t work.
• Now Ivan Demidov drives down the middle of the ice to draw a hooking call. There will be 53 seconds of five-on-three time.
• Suzuki is really struggling to play the puck.
• But the captain has the strength to push the puck back to the point. Hutson swings it over to Zachary Bolduc, and that shot is powerful to beat Vejmela for the 1-0 lead.

• Some good work from Florian to come back and support his defence, actually being the one to collect the puck in the defensive zone. He then fights through a check on the rush and sets up Adam Engström’s first NHL shot before ending the shift with a face-wash.
• Now Florian goes right at his man with a chest-high puck coming his way, and forces a whistle for a drop-pass. He is an NHL player, and so far I see no reason to send him down.
• Bolduc is lucky to get away with a poor pass in his own zone, but the puck come right back to him so he can lead the breakout. The puck goes to Caufield than across to Suzuki for a one-timer and the 2-0 goal.

• That was Suzuki’s 400th NHL point.
• Utah gets a chance to get back in the game with Mike Matheson sent off for tripping. That call probably doesn’t get made if Montreal hadn’t had a five-on-three.
• An aggressive kill keeps Utah to the outside, and the Habs take a 2-0 lead into the dressing room after a good period.

Second period

• Hutson is everywhere in this game, and he really wants a goal.
• Montreal is holding the puck in Utah’s zone. This is the way to fix your second-period issues.
• Hutson begins a breakout and if not for a great save by Vejmelka, Bolduc would have had a second goal in this game.
• Xhekaj is the latest player to get a shot, but he didn’t have enough room to fully pull the puck to his forehand and could only flick the puck. Still, it’s an offensive-zone faceoff earned by the third line.
• Despite the flow of play, Alexandre Carrier flips the puck over the glass into the penalty box, and he will now trade places with it.
• And that allows Utah to gets its first goal. Barrett Hayton is left unmarked as Josh Anderson wanders too far from his station.
• I don’t know what changes this year, but teams are going after Suzuki a lot more.
• With the goal, momentum has shifted to Utah.
• And the game is tied.
• Make that 3-2 for the Mammoth.
• Michael Carcone burned Joe Veleno behind the net, and Dobeš looked the wrong way for the rebound.
• A scrum ensues after the goal, and Jared Davidson ends up with an extra minor to put the Mammoth back on the power play.
• Montreal’s penalty-killers were forced to defend for a full two-minute shift, but the survive.
• It was a great start to the period. I think Utah had two shots on the board when Carrier took his penalty at 9:07. Then it was a terrible finish as the Mammoth registered 11 more shots, and three goals.

Third period

• An early power play will give Montreal a chance to tie the game.
• And they do, with Juraj Slafkovský on the top unit to pound in a one-timer.
• The Mammoth are looking for offside on the entry. They think they have enough for a challenge.
• They do. No goal as Slafkovský was inside the line waiting for the puck to cross it. They will have to do it again.
• Bolduc fires a shot off the post, but it bounces across right to Suzuki, who scores his second goal of he game.

• It’s a three-point game for Bolduc, the first of his career.
• Demidov likes to wait until the final second as he’s about to be hit before swinging around to send the puck across the ice. I fear he’s going to get hurt doing that at some point.
• But, he didn’t get hurt that time, and instead ended the shift by beating Vejmelka from range to put the Habs back in the lead.

• Clayton Keller blasts the puck off the post on a delayed penalty. Now two important minutes for the penalty kill.
• Dylan Guenther gets his stick between Dobeš’s legs and twists him down. Somehow that’s not enough to bring Utah’s power play to an end.
• Play is very scrambly coming out of the kill. Montreal gets a two-on-one that delays into a four-on-three, then Utah goes the other way through some desperate coverage to test Dobeš twice.
• You can be sure Martin St-Louis is preaching calm in this TV timeout.
• The Canadiens have iced the puck four times with Vejmelka on the bench, but they’re hanging on.
• Nick Suzuki sends the puck down the ice. It hits the post and bounces straight back, but the linesman is in the habit of calling icings and blows it down. That faceoff will go to centre ice.
• Another icing leaves 3.8 seconds on the clock.
• Time expires. Montreal wins back-to-back games, and at least temporarily moves into the Atlantic’s third seed with the Senators still playing.
• Next is a tough back-to-back in Las Vegas and then Colorado. It will be interesting to see how St-Louis deploys his goalies for the games.

EOTP 3 Stars

3) And count it did

2) We’re not quite at that level, but an impressive effort from them tonight

1) Saved by the bell