The Montreal Canadiens beat the New York Rangers 3-2 on Thursday night, keeping their streak alive, thanks largely to Cole Caufield's heroics.
In the fourth game of their five-game road trip, the Montreal Canadiens were taking on the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Thursday night. Martin St-Louis’ men were looking for a seventh win in a row, while the underperforming Rangers were looking for a fourth win in a row.
Despite Jakub Dobes being red-hot these days, the Habs elected to give the net to Jacob Fowler, who had last played on Saturday night against the Nashville Predators, backstopping the Canadiens to a 4-1 win.
The Improving Penalty Kill
The Habs have struggled all season when playing down a man, but the penalty kill has done good work since the start of the road trip, giving up a single goal on 10 opportunities against the Predators, the Carolina Hurricanes, and the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Juraj Slafkovsky could have put his team in deep trouble when he was assessed a four-minute penalty for high-sticking, but the penalty killers were up to the task and killed it. Fowler faced three shots in those four minutes, saving them all.
On the road, the Canadiens are 28th on the penalty kill with a 74.6% success rate, while they are much more efficient at home at 79.8%.
Playing Smart
Throughout 40 minutes, the Rangers only had 12 shots on goal and looked like what they are, a team that hasn’t got much left to fight for. While the Canadiens could have been tempted to open up the play and try to run up the score against weaker opposition, the Habs played it smart.
They stuck to the game plan and didn’t take any unnecessary risks. Still, when they had the opportunity for the fancy no-look passes in the appropriate setting, they grabbed it with both hands, and it led to Cole Caufield’s 48th goal of the season, which gave him 82 points on the year. It’s not 100, but it’s a point-per-game rhythm in an 82-game season. Mind you, he can only play 81 this year after missing a game due to illness.
Caufield For The Win… Again
While the Canadiens dominated through 40 minutes, the Rangers made a push in the final frame, and with plenty of traffic in front of Fowler’s net, they managed to tie the score. Montreal didn’t panic. St. Louis took a timeout to decide whether to challenge the goal. The coach elected not to challenge as he didn’t want to risk putting the Rangers on the power play. Those extra 30 seconds allowed his players to settle down and refocus.
It worked like a charm. The Canadiens noticed the Rangers lining up on one side for a one-timer, and once Montreal won the draw, they elected to launch the attack on the other side. Caufield scored his second of the game, and it would turn out to be the game-winning goal just 47 seconds after the Rangers' second goal. It’s the 12th time this season that the sniper scores the game-winner, and that was the 28th go-ahead goal he scored on the season, tying Pavel Bure for the second most in a season. Brett Hull has the record in that department with 39, a mark that is out of reach for now, but the way the Canadiens’ first line is evolving, who knows what could happen in the coming years…
Caufield now has 49 goals on the season, trailing Nathan MacKinnon by a single goal in the Rocket Richard race, and it looks like this one will go down to the wire. With assists on each of Caufield’s goals, Nick Suzuki now has 94 points on the year, and with seven games to go, he is on pace for a 103-point season. Meanwhile, Juraj Slafkovsky registered his 67th point and remains one goal shy of 30.
Fowler played a good game, even though he wasn't overly tested, but when the team needed him to make a save, he was ready. In one sequence, he made a big pad save and followed it with a big glove save seconds later with some added swagger. The youngster looked like he was in the zone.
That makes seven regulation wins in a row for the Canadiens, who will play the final game of their road trip on Saturday night against the New Jersey Devils before playing them again on Sunday at the Bell Centre.
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