Fans were treated to a rollercoaster ride at the Bell Centre tonight, but ultimately, the Canadiens grabbed the all-important two points, and they did it in regulation.
With an incredibly tight playoff race in the Eastern Conference this season, the Montreal Canadiens had a must-win game against the New York Islanders on Saturday at the Bell Centre. Before the game, the organization paid tribute to Rodger Brulotte, a monument of the journalistic scene in Quebec, who passed away on Friday after a battle with cancer. Brulotte will be most remembered for his role as the Montreal Expos play-by-play man on RDS, but he also had a hand in the creation of the Expos’ mascot (at the time), Youppi! After the video tribute, the mascot came out on the ice, wearing his Expos jersey from back in the day, and holding a picture of himself with Brulotte, a nice touch by the organization.
The Canadiens came out strong out of the gate and took a whopping 17 shots on Ilya Sorokin’s net in the first frame, but they still ended up trailing 2-1 after the first 20 minutes of action. While the Habs did well to test the star netminder often, they failed to create any traffic in front of him, and he’s one of those goalies who will stop the puck if he sees it.
Jacob Fowler, who was in the net for the first time since his loss to the Anaheim Ducks last Sunday, only saw six shots in the first stanza, but still surrendered two goals. The first of which was a sharp top-corner shot from former Habs Emil Heineman on the power play, and the second was scored on a breakaway. He could have given up a third after mishandling the puck out of his net and losing it, but Brendan Gallagher cut off the Islanders’ pass.
A Tale Of Two Teams
After dominating in the first frame, the Canadiens came out worryingly flat to start the second frame and stayed flat for much of it. Martin St-Louis’ men didn’t have a single shot on goal until 14 minutes had been played in the frame. Whatever Montreal was trying, it wasn’t working. Asked about that period, the coach explained:
The first tenish minutes of the second, we couldn’t execute. We had so many moments where we could have spent time in their zone, but we missed a pass, we tried to go low to high, and it bounced over our sticks. We could never get going. Eventually, we got it back. You know, I thought our power play was really good, which helped us regain momentum. I just felt tonight, in that third period, the guys understood how we played a lot of good hockey, and, unfortunately, the game is tied right now. Let’s get this game. It was a group decision at that point; we just kept going, and we were hard to handle.
The Canadiens bounced back after a good scare; the Islanders had a goal denied when the puck was touched too high, and it seemed to wake Montreal up. Not long after, Jean-Gabriel Pageau absolutely obliterated Lane Hutson with a bone-crushing hit, and from that point on, the right version of the Canadiens was back. Seconds after that hit, Alex Newhook, who had missed numerous chances up to that point, tied up the game with a one-timer from the side. The goal came at the right time, especially since he had just missed a golden scoring opportunity from the high slot.
Less than a minute and 20 seconds later, Cole Caufield scored his 41st of the season, walking in with the puck on the near post and lodging it above Sorokin’s shoulder. A power play goal made possible by the fact that Juraj Slafkovsky made a good read on the other side to stop a zone exit from the Isles.
After 40 minutes, the Canadiens had a 3-2 lead, somehow. Still, Brendan Gallagher had put them in hot water again by taking an incredibly silly penalty, a tripping call in the offensive zone with six seconds left in the frame.
Gallagher Bounced Back
While the penalty ended up being costly, with New York tying up the game on that power play, the veteran wasn’t made to skip a shift. Some might have liked the coach to have held him accountable, but on his very next shift, the Habs got the lead back as the veteran was creating traffic in front of the Isles’ netminder. Gallagher had an assist on the play and redeemed himself in the best possible way. Perhaps the coach felt his veteran knew what he had done was wrong, so there was no need to hammer the point home.
An Offensive Feast For The Top Line
In this 7-3 win, the top line combined for 13 points. Caufield got a hat-trick and a pair of helpers for five points, while Nick Suzuki and Juraj Slafkovsky both recorded four points. They were a thorn in the Islanders’ side all night, and they frustrated their first line so much that Matthew Barzal ended up dropping his gloves and trying to fight the captain in the third. Suzuki was wise enough to decline the invite, and Kaiden Guhle soon came to his rescue.
Montreal now has 13 games left to play, and Caufield has 43 goals, making a 50-goal season a real possibility; he is on pace for 51 as things stand. As for Slafkovsky, he now has 61 points in 69 games, and each new point sets a new career high. As for Suzuki, with 85 points, he only needs four to tie his record-breaking 89 output from last season. The question is, though, will they remain together or will they have to be split up to kick-start the second line?
The Canadiens will have a day off on Sunday and be back to work in Brossard on Monday morning.
Follow Karine on X @KarineHains Bluesky @karinehains.bsky.social and Threads @karinehains.
Bookmark The Hockey News Canadiens' page for all the news and happenings around the Canadiens.
Join the discussion by signing up to the Canadiens' roundtable on The Hockey News.
Subscribe to The Hockey News at THN.com/free. Get the latest news and trending stories by subscribing to our newsletter here.