Montreal Canadiens Wrap Western Wandering With Win In Winnipeg

The Montreal Canadiens wrapped up the western part of their road trip with a win over the Winnipeg Jets last night.

The Montreal Canadiens took on the Winnipeg Jets in Winnipeg last night in a game that was the end of their four game road trip through western Canada. The Habs started things off on the right foot, beating the Vancouver Canucks and Calgary Flames before falling to the Edmonton Oilers.

The game started poorly for the Habs with the Jets jumping all over them in the opening minute. It appeared the Jets were going to open the scoring just 30 seconds into the game, after Ben Chiarot (yes, Ben Chiarot) banged a rebound in behind Carey Price. However, a quick thinking Tomas Tatar reached in and pulled the puck out of the crease to save a goal.

Shortly after that, it was the Habs video coach that saved a goal. The Jets made some nice passes across the Canadiens zone and Patrik Laine hammered a one-timer past Price. The Canadiens would challenge and it was deemed that Mark Scheifele was offside as the Jets entered the Habs zone leading to the goal, so it was waived off.

A game that was inches away from being 2-0 Winnipeg was still scoreless.

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Finally, on a power play after a controversial Chiarot penalty, the Jets opened the scoring for real. Kyle Connor banged in a rebound from the top of the crease and no linesmen or video coaches or Tomas Tatar’s were there to save them this time.

However, Tatar did turn that one goal deficit into a one goal lead before the end of the period. First, he received a cross-ice pass from Nick Suzuki on the power play, quickly got set and fired a wrist shot past Laurent Brossoit to tie the game.

Just 1:32 later, Tatar would find the scoresheet again as he headed to the front of the net and knocked in a Shea Weber rebound. The period would end with the Habs leading 2-1 and the shots somehow 17-16 in favour of Montreal though I think the person counting shots may have been seeing double after a few egg nogs.

The second period begins and sometimes Nick Cousins just falls down for no reason and I wonder how good Suzuki would be if he had better linemates.

Phillip Danault extended the Habs lead to 3-1 after Jets goaltender Brossoit gave the puck away to Brendan Gallagher while he was behind his own net. He recovered enough to stop Gallagher twice, but the second rebound went right to Danault at the side of the net and Brossoit had no chance to keep it out again.

Oh, Suzuki just forced a turnover on the forecheck and gave it to Cousins wide open in front and …. well, you know he didn’t score.

Weber is off to the box for closing his hand on the puck, but I can’t really see the advantage he gained there. Anyway, going to the penalty kill was once a guaranteed goal against but the Habs have been better lately, we’ll see how is goes.

Well, the Jets couldn’t score on the man advantage so they tried to put a sixth skater out for a while to see if that helped. It didn’t. The game goes to five on five and Danault scores his second of the night right off the face-off in the Jets zone on a pretty weak shot through the five hole of Brossoit.

Who is going to get a hat trick first? Tatar or Danault? Or maybe this pattern means Gallagher scores two in the third?

The Habs continued to carry the play for most of the period and got a strong shift from a line of Nate Thompson, Jordan Weal and Cousins but the Jets come down the other way and Laine fires a long range shot past Price to make it 4-2.

Then, in the final minute of the period, Suzuki forced another turnover on the forecheck, this time stealing the puck from Nathan Beaulieu. Remember when Beaulieu used to turn the puck over for the Habs? Well, he still does it frequently, he just plays elsewhere.

Suzuki made a smart, heads up pass across the ice to Max Domi who found Artturi Lehkonen in the slot and Lehkonen fired a one-timer past Brossoit, past the net altogether and off the glass which is of course what Lehkonen usually does. However, the puck bounced right back out front and Domi buried the rebound to make it 5-2.

The third period was pretty uneventful for the first half, other than the announcement that Joel Armia was injured in the second period and would not return.

Halfway through the frame, Domi picked off a Jets clearing attack just outside the Habs attacking zone and carried it over the line. He drew a pair of defenders toward him before firing a perfect pass to Lehkonen who fired a shot past Brossoit but not past the net this time! 6-2 Habs and all is well in Habs land again.

Then you look around the league and see that the Boston Bruins, Toronto Maple Leafs and Tampa Bay Lightning all won while scoring at least six goals tonight as well.

You can’t worry too much about what other teams do, especially this early in the season. Just be thankful the Canadiens went 3-1-0, gaining six of a possible eight points in the standings on a tough western road swing. They now have four days off before heading to Florida to take on the Panthers and Lightning this weekend.