Canadiens Smothered By Canucks | RECAP: MTL @ VAN

The Montreal Canadiens were shut down by the Vancouver Canucks and their goaltender struggled to keep the puck out of his net.

Forwards

22 Cole Caufield - 14 Nick Suzuki - 20 Juraj Slafkovsky
49 Rafael Harvey-Pinard - 15 Alex Newhook - 40 Joel Armia
11 Brendan Gallagher - 71 Jake Evans - 17 Josh Anderson
55 Michael Pezzetta - 36 Colin White - 70 Tanner Pearson

Defensemen
8 Mike Matheson - 54 Jordan Harris
21 Kaiden Guhle - 26 Johnathan Kovacevic
72 Arber Xhekaj - 58 David Savard

Goaltenders

Starter: 35 Sam Montembeault
Alternate: 30 Cayden Primeau

Out of the lineup

Scratches: Jesse Ylonen, Jayden Struble
Injuries: Carey Price (knee), Chris Wideman (back), Kirby Dach (knee), Christian Dvorak (upper body), Joshua Roy (hand)

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

The Canadiens realized that they would be in tough against the top team in the Western Conference. Early on they fared well trading chances with Vancouver. But following a string of three Montreal penalties midway through the first period, the momentum started to change in favor of the home squad.

Nikita Zadorov scored twice in a four minute span before the end of the period to give the Canucks a 2-0 lead to open the second frame. The Canadiens struggled to cope with Vancouver's forecheck pressure. Clean zone breakouts were rare from the visitors.

The Canadiens could not sustain pressure in the offensive zone with Vancouver stifling their ability to generate offense five-on-five. But Montreal could not take advantage of three power play opportunities in the middle frame either.

Connor Garland and Juraj Slafkovsky traded goals towards the end of the period, as Vancouver maintained their two-goal lead heading into the third period.

The Canucks relentless pressure smothered the Canadiens in the final frame, managing just three shots on goal. 

In addition to failing to produce offense, Montreal did not receive adequate goaltending. Sam Montembeault has lost six starts in a row and nine of his last ten.

Prior to the game the Canadiens announced that Joshua Roy will miss four to six weeks with an upper body injury. Roy injured his right hand blocking a shot against the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday night.

Canadiens (25-32-12)
Shots: 17
Face-off %: 54.0
Power play: 0/3
Penalty minutes: 10
Hits: 24
Blocks: 18

Canucks (44-18-8)
Shots: 25
Face-off %: 46.0
Power play: 0/4
Penalty minutes: 8
Hits: 40
Blocks: 12

Canadiens Scorers
1st period: --
2nd period: Slafkovsky (15)
3rd period: --
OT: --
SO: --

Canucks Scorers
1st period: Zadorov (5), Zadorov (6)
2nd period: Garland (15)
3rd period: Aman (3)
OT: --
SO: --

Goaltenders
MTL: Montembeault (L) 13-13-7
VAN: DeSmith (W) 10-5-6

Jordan Harris - Harris started the game on the top pairing and played 18:20. He was a plus-1 and led the Canadiens with five blocked shots.

Juraj Slafkovsky - Slafkovsky scored the only Montreal goal of the game.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0HbWx1mfg4[/embed]

Trevor Letowski 

"The first eight to 10 minutes were our best in the game before we took the first penalty. The three penalties slowed us down. They didn't score, but it affected the game."

"We couldn't generate enough. We had no answers offensively. They have been consistent. We knew it was coming, but we realized that they are a good team. They played well."

The Canadiens will be in Seattle to face the Kraken on Sunday night. Game time is 9:00 pm. EDT.

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