Canadiens Hold On to Defeat the Islanders | RECAP: NYI @ MTL

GAME RECAP | Montreal Canadiens 5 vs New York Islanders 3 | FINAL

Forwards

22 Cole Caufield - 14 Nick Suzuki - 20 Juraj Slafkovsky
91 Sean Monahan - 71 Jake Evans - 17 Josh Anderson
11 Brendan Gallagher - 28 Christian Dvorak - 56 Jesse Ylonen
55 Michael Pezzetta - 13 Mitchell Stephens - 40 Joel Armia

Defensemen
8 Mike Matheson - 58 David Savard
21 Kaiden Guhle - 52 Justin Barron
47 Jayden Struble - 26 Johnathan Kovacevic

Goaltenders

Starter: 35 Sam Montembeault
Alternate: 34 Jake Allen

Out of the lineup

Scratches: Gustav Lindstrom, Cayden Primeau, Emil Heineman
Injuries: Carey Price (knee), Chris Wideman (back), Kirby Dach (knee), Rafael Harvey-Pinard (lower body), Jordan Harris (lower body), Alex Newhook (lower body), Tanner Pearson (upper body)

Martin St. Louis wanted a strong performance from his team in their final home game on the 2023 calendar. And the head coach got exactly that, for two periods.

The Canadiens dominated the possession game spending more than twice as much time in the offensive zone in the opening period. The Islanders did a good job of protecting the slot as Montreal continued to struggle to get to the middle of the ice.

But it was in the second frame when the Habs scoring touch came alive. Joel Armia got the festivities underway set up by Brendan Gallagher winning a board battle. Less than three minutes later, Josh Anderson scored his first goal on a goaltender since March 13th.  

In the final minute of the second period, the Canadiens added two more goals, Anderson's second marker of the game and Cole Caufield ending his seven game goal slump. After 40-minutes, Montreal was outshooting the Islanders 36 to 16. High danger scoring chances were 19 to 3 for the Canadiens.

But Montreal was given a scare in the third period as Brock Nelson scored twice in the first four minutes. Bo Horvat brought the visitors withing a goal with just under six minutes remaining. Christian Dvorak sealed the win with an empty-net goal.

Canadiens (13-13-4)
Shots: 41
Face-off %: 69.2
Power play: 0/2
Penalty minutes: 2
Hits: 14
Blocks:18

Islanders (14-8-8)
Shots: 33
Face-off %: 30.8
Power play: 0/1
Penalty minutes: 4
Hits: 23
Blocks: 14

Canadiens Scorers
1st period: --
2nd period: Armia (4), Anderson (2), Anderson (3), Caufield (8)
3rd period: Dvorak (2)-ENG
OT: --
SO: --

Islanders Scorers
1st period: --
2nd period: --
3rd period: Nelson (14)-SHG, Nelson (15), Horvat (12)
OT: --
SO: --

Goaltenders
MTL: Montembeault (W) 7-4-2
NYI: Varlamov (L) 6-4-1I

Josh Anderson - Anderson scored twice, his first multi-goal game since March 1, 2022.

Nick Suzuki - With more than 19 minutes of ice time, Suzuki had six shots on goal and recorded two assists.

Justin Barron - Barron played close to 18 minutes, tallied two assists and finished with a plus-3 rating.

Sean Monahan - Monahan had two assists, four shots on goal and had a 73 percent success rate at the faceoff dot.

Josh Anderson

"The situation could have become very frustrating, but to feel their support in the last days was truly wonderful. It will be a night that I will always remember."

Sean Monahan

"We were able to create several chances based on what we practiced this week. A lot of guys played smart in this game."

Martin St. Louis

"After 40 minutes, it was definitely our two best periods played, we were really connected."

The Montreal Canadiens head out on a three-game road trip prior to the Christmas break with their first stop in Winnipeg to face the Jets on Monday night.

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