Montreal Canadiens played their best game of the season against the defending Stanley Cup champions, the Vegas Golden Knights.

GAME RECAP | Montreal Canadiens vs Vegas Golden Knights

Canadiens Lineup

Forwards

22 Cole Caufield - 14 Nick Suzuki - 49 Rafael Harvey-Pinard
20 Juraj Slafkovsky - 15 Alex Newhook - 17 Josh Anderson
70 Tanner Pearson - 91 Sean Monahan - 11 Brendan Gallagher
55 Michael Pezzetta - 71 Jake Evans - 40 Joel Armia

Defensemen
8 Mike Matheson - 26 Johnathan Kovacevic
21 Kaiden Guhle - 52 Justin Barron
72 Arber Xhekaj - 54 Jordan Harris

Goaltenders

Starter: 35 Sam Montembeault
Alternate: 34 Jake Allen  

Out of the lineup

Scratches: Cayden Primeau, Jesse Ylonen, Gustav Lindstrom

Injuries: Christian Dvorak (knee), Carey Price (knee), Chris Wideman (back), Kirby Dach (knee), David Savard (hand)

Game Report

With the win, the Golden Knights have the best record by a Stanley Cup champion in their first ten games of the following season. But this was not a game where they were in full control. The Canadiens used their speed to pressure a sluggish Vegas team.

It was an impressive performance for Montreal who had traveled on Sunday across three time zones. Yet they looked to be the fresher club. Canadiens forwards used their speed to establish position on the outside in the offensive zone, and then drove to the net with consistency.

"They outplayed us in a lot of areas so we have some work to do," said Vegas head coach Bruce Cassidy. In the view of Marty St. Louis, it was Montreal's best game since he began coaching the team.

On the back end, the Canadiens were rock solid, led by Kaiden Guhle with 26:08 in ice time. Paired with Guhle was Justin Barron, who also played a strong game. Mike Matheson struggled mightily throughout the match missing passes. committing turnovers and losing puck battles.

Nick Suzuki forced the game to overtime, thus securing a point for Montreal , scoring his second goal of the season with just over four minutes remaining in the third period.

Sam Montembeault was not a significant factor through regulation time. The Canadiens limited the Golden Knights to just two shots on goal in the second period and six in the third frame. It was overtime where Montembeault came to life, stopping Jack Eichel on a penalty shot and making an excellent skate save on Alex Pietrangelo.

Montembeault turned aside shots from Eichel and Paul Cotter in the shootout but gave up goals to Jonathan Marchessault and Shea Theodore. 

The goaltending story was Adin Hill who was the far busier netminder making 37 saves (a career high) plus two more in the shootout. Hill also gifted a goal to Sean Monahan, who took advantage of an errant pass for a short-handed marker.

When asked to describe the goalie error, Monahan said simply, "That's hockey. It happens."

Game Statistics

Canadiens (5-2-2)
Shots: 39
Face-off %: 60.0
Power play: 0/4
Penalty minutes: 6
Hits: 20
Blocks: 10

Golden Knights (9-0-1)
Shots: 26
Face-off %: 40.0
Power play: 1/3
Penalty minutes: 8
Hits: 23
Blocks: 17

Scoring Summary

Canadiens Scorers
1st period: --
2nd period: Monahan (5)-SHG
3rd period: Suzuki (2)
OT: --
SO: --

Golden Knights Scorers
1st period: Cotter (3)- PPG
2nd period: Carrier (2)
3rd period: --
OT: --
SO: Theodore (game-deciding goal)

Goaltenders
MTL: Montembeault (OTL) 2-1-1
VGK: Hill (W) 5-0-1

Canadiens Players of the Game

Kaiden Guhle - The Canadiens defenseman had three shots on goal, led the team with three blocked shots, and earned a plus-2 rating in more than 26 minutes of icetime.

Nick Suzuki - The captain was the only successful Canadiens shooter in the shootout. With his goal in regulation, Suzuki maintains a point a game pace (7 points in 7 games) against the team that drafted him.

Sean Monahan - Monahan scored his fifth goal of the season giving him the team lead in that category. Monahan had four shots on goal and had an 83 percent success rate in 23 draws at the faceoff dot.

Video Highlights

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nh8YK32ZCqA[/embed]

Post-game Quotes

Marty St. Louis

“Since I took the job, it’s the best game we’ve played from start to finish."

Nick Suzuki

"It gives us a lot of confidence, we showed that we can compete against anyone. We could have won. Our future is bright, it's fun to see."

Game Preview

Canadiens Face A Big Test in Vegas | PREVIEW: MTL @ VGK

Up Next

The Canadiens continue their three-game road trip on Thursday in Tempe, AZ. Puck drop for the match against the Coyotes is 10 pm. Eastern time.

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