Canadiens Stymied by Wolf in Calgary | RECAP: MTL @ CGY

Forwards

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

Defensemen
8 Mike Matheson - 21 Kaiden Guhle
72 Arber Xhekaj - 58 David Savard
47 Jayden Struble - 54 Jordan Harris

Goaltenders

Starter: 30 Cayden Primeau
Alternate: 35 Sam Montembeault

Out of the lineup

Scratches: Jesse Ylonen, Michael Pezzetta, Johnathan Kovacevic
Injuries: Carey Price (knee), Chris Wideman (back), Kirby Dach (knee), Christian Dvorak (upper body)

The Canadiens penalty kill has been a strength in recent games killing 18 straight penalties. But tonight the 31st-ranked Calgary power play scored twice to fuel the Flames win.

Michael Backlund scored the first two Flames goals while Martin Pospisil pushed the Calgary lead to 3-0 by the 7:41 mark of the second period.

Cole Caufield ended a 12-game scoring drought, recording his 20th goal of the season. David Savard brought the Canadiens within one with 1:35 remaining in the second period.

In the third frame, Calgary scored twice to put the game out of reach. Flames goaltender Dustin Wolf made 36 saves for the win.

Mike Matheson was on the ice for four Calgary goals and finished the night at minus-3. Matheson has a minus-30 rating this season, worst on the Canadiens. 

The game itself was overshadowed for head coach Martin St. Louis and his family. In a press release just a short time before puck drop, the Canadiens announced that St. Louis "will be away from the team indefinitely for family reasons." Assistant coach Trevor Letowski has assumed the head coaching responsibilities for the team. 

During the first intermission, David Savard told TVA Sports that the team would try to earn a win for St. Louis' son. 

On Friday, the Canadiens cancelled a scheduled practice in Calgary. St. Louis did not meet with the media on Saturday morning as scheduled.

Canadiens (25-31-11)
Shots: 38
Face-off %: 66.7
Power play: 0/3
Penalty minutes: 8
Hits: 17
Blocks: 17

Flames (33-29-5)
Shots: 28
Face-off %: 33.3
Power play: 2/3
Penalty minutes: 8
Hits: 20
Blocks: 19

Canadiens Scorers
1st period: --
2nd period: Caufield (20), Savard (6)
3rd period: --
OT: --
SO: --

Flames Scorers
1st period: Backlund (14)-PPG
2nd period: Backlund (15), Pospisil (7)
3rd period: Kadri (23)-PPG, Miromanov (2)
OT: --
SO: --

Goaltenders
MTL: Primeau (L) 6-7-2
CGY: Wolf (W) 3-3-1

David Savard - Savard scored his sixth goal of the season playing 20:14.

David Savard to during the first intermission on the absence of Martin St. Louis

"These are never things that are easy to learn. Our thoughts are with Martin's family. We're going to try to get a win for his son."

Tanner Pearson

"When something like this happens, we want to rally together and try to win for the person. It's disappointing that it didn't happen, it would have been nice to get that win."

Trevor Letowski

"The last 24 hours have been emotional. [Marty St. Louis] is the leader of the group and it is an emotional time for the team. We wanted to rally, but it didn't work tonight."

The Canadiens continue their five game Western road trip in Edmonton on Tuesday night facing the Oilers. Game time is 9:00 pm. EDT.

Be sure to bookmark THN.com/Montreal for year-round coverage of the Montreal Canadiens, Laval Rocket, and Habs prospects playing in leagues around the world.