History repeats itself for the Canadian. The team’s indiscipline once again cost CH a victory, which lost 4-2 against the Stars in Dallas.
It’s a pity for Martin St-Louis and his troops, who contained the powerful attack of the Stars in numerical equality. Montreal’s special teams were unresponsive, however, as the Stars’ power play provided three of four goals in the win.
“I’m happy with our five-on-five game. They are a difficult team to face and we were able to handle their pressure well. It’s one of our best five-on-five matches in a long time. They have a good numerical advantage,” admitted
Jason Robertson took advantage of the Stars’ power play productivity to amass two assists and hit the 50-point plateau this season. He is the fourth player after Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Tage Thompson to reach this milestone this season.
In front of the net, Jake Allen stood out on 32 occasions, but his efforts weren’t enough for the Canadians (15-16-3) to find their way back to victory. Montreal suffered a second straight loss to kick off the holiday break.
Prior to the match, St. Louis had made some surprising changes, as they split Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki.
“I liked pretty much everyone’s game,” insisted St-Louis. We were engaged. We were up against a good team. It’s nice to see our support players producing. I’m happy with our trios. »
Jake Evans gave himself a Christmas present a little early. Early in the game, Evans boosted the Canadiens’ power play statistically by scoring his first goal of the season in his 34th game. He slipped between the Stars defense at the very end of the power play to score his first goal since April 29, on assists from Michael Pezzetta and of Jordan Harris.
If the 4th trio of CH has often been criticized for its lack of production, everything seemed to unblock against Dallas (20-9-6). In the opening moments of the middle period, Pezzetta returned to the charge. On a two-on-one climb, Pezzetta fired a perfect wrist shot to score his second goal of the campaign and double Montreal’s lead.
It was ultimately indiscipline that made the Canadian falter with less than five minutes to play in the second period. While Jonathan Drouin was in the penalty box, the striker Roope Hintz was forgotten at the mouth of the net and he completed a nice pass from Jason Robertson to close the gap.
The Canadian would have had an interest in learning from his mistakes. From the first moments of the third period, Montreal once again found itself short of a man and the Stars made the blunder pay dearly. While Mike Hoffman was in the dungeon, Hintz deflected a Robertson shot to tie the game with his second goal of the game.
As the saying goes, never two without three. With five minutes left in the third period, Wyatt Johnston pounced on a throwback in the slot to score the Stars’ third power-play goal and put Dallas in control for the first time in the game. This time it was Pezzetta who was in the penalty box.
Joel Kiviranta completed the scoring in an empty net in the final moments of the match.
In front of the Starts cage, Jake Oettinger blocked 22 pucks.
Head coach Martin St-Louis had also reshuffled his lines, notably separating Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield for the first time this season. The result was not particularly convincing. Evgenii Dadonov had given way to Pezzetta in the formation of the Canadian.
The Canadian will take over the collar on December 28, when he makes the first stop of a four-game trip by visiting the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Locker Room Echoes
Jake Evans was frustrated to see the Canadian squander a two-goal lead.
“We improve when we are ahead. We were up against a good team and we shot ourselves in the foot with the penalties. In the first two periods, we played well five against five. If we had continued like this, the story would surely have been different. »
Evans was relieved to have finally scored his first goal of the campaign.
“It feels good, especially before the break. But it’s not like it’s something I think about all the time. I don’t think I did things differently tonight. »
Michael Pezzetta spoke about coach Martin St-Louis’ message before the game.
“We know our style of hockey and we’re successful when we play fast and hard. We are a good team and we showed it for most of the game. That was his message tonight: play fast and aggressive and raise your standard.