Penalty Kill Turns Momentum in Canadiens Favor for the Win

The Montreal Canadiens ended their 10-game losing streak against the Boston Bruins with a 3-2 win on Saturday night at the Bell Centre. The Bruins scored on their first shot on goal and the contest remained 1-0 through 40 minutes. Two goals by Nick Suzuki and Brendan Gallagher in the first minute of the third period to take the lead. 

A crucial point in the game occurred starting at the 6:19 mark of the third period. Montreal had a power play while Bruins villain Brad Marchand was serving an unsportsmanlike penalty when Charlie McAvoy drew infractions against Alex Newhook and Gallagher on the same sequence. 

At that moment, Boston went from a penalty kill to a one-man advantage for 0:29, followed by a five-on-three for 1:31. The Canadiens penalty killers decided to lay it on the line to protect the lead and kept the Bruins to four shots on goal during that sequence. 

During that two minute sequence, Kaiden Guhle blocked two shots, Johnathan Kovacevic blocked one, and Christian Dvorak blocked one as Newhook and Gallagher jumped out of the penalty box. 

"[Guhle] seems to soak every one-timer and battles though it. I'm sure his body is not feeling too great right now," Nick Suzuki praised the defenceman. 

"That's what you should do if you want to win and that's what we were trying to do. We try to block every single shot we can. We got great defencemen that blocked a few shots and that helped us. They didn't score so it was great," Juraj Slafkovsky spoke about the penalty killers shot blocks. 

Guhle finished the night with five blocked shots and won the game for his team in overtime with his first goal of the season. The 21-year-old had some fun with Slafkovsky by displaying his bruises after the game. 

"When guys are blocking shots and it wasn't just me - [Kovacevic] had a couple that shift - and [Jake Evans] was laying his body out. That fires up the bench and helps us build momentum," Guhle spoke about the importance of killing those penalties.

The Canadiens are only the third team this season to hand the Bruins a loss through 14 games. Martin St. Louis pointed to the work on the shorthanded units during Newhook and Gallagher as his most proud moment of the night. "Winning hurts. You want to win, it's going to hurt and we did that [on Saturday]."

Montreal hosts the Vancouver Canucks on Sunday at the Bell Centre.  

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