The Montreal Canadiens are fighting to remain in the Top 3 of the Atlantic Division and needed a big win over the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Maple Leafs were sellers at the trade deadline, and the roster isn't as talented as in past seasons, but this is a rivalry that always makes these games close.
That was the case on Tuesday night as the Montreal Canadiens jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first but weren't able to score again until the closing minute when Jake Evans had an empty net goal to secure the 3-1 win. When looking back at that game, these are four players that made
Jakub Dobes
The Montreal Canadiens' goaltending has been a constant storyline this season, but on Tuesday, Jakub Dobes came up big in net. The Canadiens' defense did a great job of limiting the Maple Leafs scoring chances with only 15 and only six high-danger scoring chances, according to Natural Stat Trick, but Dobes still had to make some key saves to keep the lead for Montreal.
He finished the game stopping 17 of 18 shots and had an Expected Goals Against Average of 2.27, which is well above the 1.00 goals against average he had on Tuesday night. With the Canadiens playing in a back-to-back, they will likely turn to Samuel Montembeault for the game against the Senators. However, moving forward, Dobes needs to be the goalie who sees the majority of the starts.
Lane Hutson
Lane Hutson has been on a pretty impressive run as of late and had an assist with four shots against the Maple Leafs. He now has a point in four straight games and six points total over that stretch.
One stat that shows the type of impact Hutson was able to have in this game is that he was on the ice for nine high-danger chances, which is three more than the next Canadiens player. However, he wasn't just creating chances but limiting what the Maple Leafs were able to do as they had only one high-danger chance, according to Natural Stat Trick.
On a night that the Canadiens didn't have Cole Caufield for much of the game, he had just over 10 minutes of ice time due to dealing with an illness, Hutson stepped up and helped generate some of those offensive chances for the team.
Mike Matheson
Another defenseman who had a big game for the Montreal Canadiens was Mike Matheson, who finished the game leading the team in time on ice with 23:49 and had three blocked shots and one key assist.
That assist was on the final goal of the game that helped secure the victory when Jake Evans scored the empty net goal. However, that goal doesn't happen without a hustle play by Matheson.
At this point of the game, the Maple Leafs have a 6-on-5 advantage and are trying to tie the game up to send it to overtime. The Maple Leafs take a shot that Matheson is able to get down and block.
However, he wasn't done there as he was able to get back up and beat Oliver Ekman-Larsson to the puck by diving and chipping the puck out of the zone. Evans was able to get the pass and take it the rest of the way for the goal but that doesn't happen without Matheson's play late.
Oliver Kapanen
The rookie center reached a milestone on Tuesday night with his 20th goal of the season and had the Canadiens first goal of the night. It was a beautiful play with crisp passing between Kapanen, Alex Newhook, and Ivan Demidov that showed the chemistry these three have together on the ice.
It was an important goal for Montreal as they have struggled the past two games to get off to a good start. When the Canadiens are able to get that first goal of the game they are now 23-8-4 compared to 12-10-4 when the opponent scores first.
The Canadiens need to continue to stack wins in a competitive playoff race and an early lead will be a huge boost tonight against the Ottawa Senators.