The Montreal Canadiens surprised Bell Centre fans with a scrappy victory over the high-flying Colorado Avalanche.
GAME RECAP | Montreal Canadiens 4 vs Colorado Avalanche 3 | FINAL
Canadiens Lineup
Forwards
22 Cole Caufield - 14 Nick Suzuki - 20 Juraj Slafkovsky
49 Rafael Harvey-Pinard - 71 Jake Evans - 11 Brendan Gallagher
89 Joshua Roy - 91 Sean Monahan - 40 Joel Armia
55 Michael Pezzetta - 13 Mitchell Stephens - 56 Jesse Ylonen
Defensemen
21 Kaiden Guhle - 8 Mike Matheson
47 Jayden Struble - 58 David Savard
54 Jordan Harris - 26 Johnathan Kovacevic
Goaltenders
Starter: 34 Jake Allen
Alternate: 30 Cayden Primeau
Out of the lineup
Scratches: Justin Barron, Sam Montembeault
Injuries: Carey Price (knee), Chris Wideman (back), Kirby Dach (knee), Alex Newhook (lower body), Tanner Pearson (upper body), Christian Dvorak (upper body), Josh Anderson (lower body)
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgAyW1l0UdA[/embed]
Game Report
The Montreal Canadiens are not in the same stratosphere as the Colorado Avalanche. But they did the things tonight that will allow them to compete with the best teams in the league.
First and foremost, the Habs won the special teams battle. Montreal scored on each of their power play opportunities with Juraj Slafkovsky and Cole Caufield. Jake Allen and the penalty killers nullified three of Colorado's four power plays. Joel Armia played a significant role logging 3:46 while the Canadiens were short handed.
Montreal received a strong goaltending performance from Allen. The Avalanche almost doubled Montreal's high danger scoring chances 13-7 but Allen made key stops at critical times.
Allen outplayed Alexandar Georgiev, who leads the NHL in wins, by a wide margin. Post-game Avs head coach Jared Bednar spoke about two of the Canadiens goals in the second and third period, saying "I didn't think that they were good goals. I think that [Georgiev] would like to have both of them back."
The Canadiens controlled the faceoff dot averaging over 61 percent success rate. No Habs player was below 58 percent.
Montreal is the number one shot-blocking team in the league. They added 25 blocked shots to their league-leading totals in this game.
Game Statistics
Canadiens (18-18-7)
Shots: 34
Face-off %: 61.4
Power play: 2/2
Penalty minutes: 10
Hits: 8
Blocks:25
Avalanche (28-13-3)
Shots: 35
Face-off %: 38.6
Power play: 1/4
Penalty minutes: 6
Hits: 11
Blocks: 8
Scoring Summary
Canadiens Scorers
1st period: Slafkovsky (5)-PPG
2nd period: Harvey-Pinard (1)
3rd period: Caufield (13)-PPG, Armia (7)
OT: --
SO: --
Avalanche Scorers
1st period: Colton (10)-PPG
2nd period: Makar (10)
3rd period: Toews (7)
OT: --
SO: --
Goaltenders
MTL: Allen (W) 5-8-2
COL: Georgiev (L) 24-10-2
Canadiens Players of the Game
Joel Armia - Armia had three shots on goal in almost 20 minutes of ice time, was excellent on the penalty kill and scored the game-winner through a lunging individual effort.
Nick Suzuki - Suzuki notched two assists and was 65 per cent at the faceoff dot.
Jake Allen - Allen made 32 saves, including seven from the stick of Nathan MacKinnon.
Video Highlights
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlDngkdSgvY[/embed]
Post-game Quotes
Martin St. Louis on Joel Armia
"I think he's having fun, he's smiling, he's playing very good hockey at the moment. What we want from [Joel Armia] is consistency. We're getting that right now and I hope he keeps going."
Juraj Slafkovsky
"We proved that we can play against the best when we display our highest level. I am happy with this victory."
Up Next
The Canadiens will prepare for a three game road trip from Wednesday through Saturday against the Devils, Senators and Bruins.
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.
