Dobes Leads Habs To Huge Victory Over Canes

If it hadn’t been for Dobes keeping the Habs in the game early on, they could have easily gone down 4-0 in the first period. The skaters in front of the Habs’ goaltender didn’t seem to have their legs for the first half of the opening frame, and Dobes was left out to dry. Even though the Habs were down 2-0 just 7:09 into the first period, Dobes made big saves to allow the Habs to stay in the game and stay within striking distance. This was especially the case after allowing the 2nd goal of the game on the Hurricanes’ 10th shot of the night, as Dobes became a brick wall and made 33 straight saves, not allowing a single puck behind him. Even though the Habs scored 5 goals in a game once again, Dobes was by far the best Hab on the night and deserves the most credit for this win.

The Habs’ top line continued to be a factor offensively with two goals; they also got secondary scoring from the 2nd line, which surely helped the Habs secure a big win on Tuesday. Of course, playing against a goaltender like Andersen, who regularly gives up 4 goals a game this year, certainly helps the guys on lower lines be able to produce as well. Ivan Demidov in particular had his best performance in weeks, as he not only dangled around Hurricanes players, but he also used his hands to score a beautiful goal in the 3rd period. Overall, the Habs will need Demidov to perform as he did at even-strength on Tuesday night if they want to win more games down the stretch.

After the power play was clicking really well on Saturday against the Islanders, as they had 3 goals on the man advantage, the Habs were unable to get things going on Tuesday, going 0-for-4, which included both a 5-on-3 and a 4-on-3 power play that would yield no results.

The start of the game was all Hurricanes as they would open the scoring with a power play goal after Josh Anderson took a penalty just 1:37 in the first period for interference off a faceoff, making his return to the lineup after missing two games with an upper-body injury. On that ensuing man advantage, Nikolaj Ehlers would attempt to pass the puck to Seth Jarvis in front of the net, but it would unfortunately hit Mike Matheson’s stick and go into his own net. Ehlers would be credited with his 22nd goal of the season. The first period was rough for the majority of the Habs roster but especially Matheson, who seemed to have bad luck on both Hurricanes goals in the period. He would eventually settle down and have more solid final two periods, but it was a very rough beginning of the night for him.

The Hurricanes would continue to dominate early on, leading the Habs 10-1 in shots by the time they scored their 2nd goal of the night. With the Hurricanes coming up ice with the puck, Matheson would get his stick knocked out of his hands in what could have been called either slashing or interference. Without his stick, Matheson would attempt to kick the puck forward to Oliver Kapanen, who rather than getting it out would attempt to swipe the puck back to a defender, but it instead went to Jordan Staal, who was alone in front of the net to beat Dobes and make it a 2-0 game.

It was a tough goal to give up for multiple players, especially Kapanen, who made a horrible read of the play as no hab was in the direction that he looked to send the puck back to. Luckily, the Habs rookie was able to redeem himself a little later in the period.

Kapanen would be able to cancel out his mistake as he tipped a Jayden Struble shot past Andersen. The Habs centre got into the right area in the slot to redirect a shot pass perfectly, which was able to give the Canadiens some much-needed life that allowed them to find their game and not look back. Despite getting heavily outshot after this goal for the rest of the game, the Habs weren’t dominated like they were before it; it was just that the Hurricanes peppered Dobes with shots every time they had a chance, whether or not it was a good scoring opportunity. With his goal, Kapanen is now up to 21 goals on the year but has scored just 3 in his last 13 games since the Olympic break. He is hoping his scoring touch can come back consistently.

It didn’t take long into the 2nd period for the Canadiens’ top line to strike as Cole Caufield would score his 44th of the season and tie the game up off a rebound from a Nick Suzuki one-timer. He continues to have the hot stick after coming off a hat-trick on Saturday night. The Canadiens sniper is still 2 goals back of the league lead, as Nathan MacKinnon would also score for the Avalanche on Tuesday. Caufield now needs 6 goals to reach 50 on the year, and for a minute on Tuesday, many fans, including myself, thought he scored his 45th of the season.

A few minutes after Caufield tied the game, he would get his stick on a Noah Dobson wrist shot that would beat Andersen and give the Canadiens a 3-2 lead. However, it turned out that the puck also hit Juraj Slafkovsky’s shin pad before it beat Andersen. Therefore, the goal was given to Slafkovsky for his 28th of the season instead. Either way, the thing that mattered most was that the Canadiens were able to make a comeback from down 2-0 to flipping the script and getting a 3-2 lead within 20 minutes of game time.

In the 3rd period, the Hurricanes would put a lot of pressure on the Habs as they got many good looks to tie the game; Dobes stood strong and made massive saves to keep the Canadiens in the lead. His best save of the period came on a Logan Stankoven breakaway later in the period, after the Habs made it 4-2.

The goal that made it 4-2 in favour of the Habs was scored by rookie sensation Ivan Demidov. After Hurricanes defenseman K’Andre Miller fumbled the puck at the blueline, Demidov would poke the puck further away to create a race where he beat the defenseman for a breakaway, where he used his silky hands to beat Andersen with a deke before tucking the puck in the net. The Bell Centre let out a huge roar as they do for the majority of the 20-year-old’s goals. It was also Demidov’s first goal in his last 6 games.

Despite the Hurricanes pushing to get back in the game, Dobes looked extremely calm in his net as he stopped everything that came his way the rest of the night. With exactly 1 minute left in the 3rd period, Jake Evans would shoot the puck down the ice and into the empty net to give the Habs a 5-2 win.

With this win and performance, Dobes improves to 9-3-1 with a .917 save percentage and 2.52 GAA since Marco Marciano became the Habs’ NHL goalie coach. This is a huge improvement to the .884 save percentage and 3.12 GAA under Eric Raymond earlier this season. Therefore, Marciano deserves a lot of credit for Tuesday’s win, as without solid goaltending early on, the Habs may have been out of it before the 10-minute mark of the opening frame.

The Habs will be back in action on Thursday when they host another team in the middle of the playoff race, the red-hot Columbus Blue Jackets. They will hope that the momentum from beating the top team in the Eastern Conference will carry into what is expected to be another very important game.