Habs Highlights: Montembeault Shines In Big Comeback Win

In the end, the Habs won 3-2, and there’s a lot to discuss, so let’s dive into the highlights.

Slafkovsky Building Momentum

The Habs started the game with the type lethargic effort that was common throughout the first month of NHL action, but has been rather rare in the last month or so.

Kaiden Guhle struggled to track a bouncing puck, leading to Nikita Kucherov’s opening goal, while Mike Matheson lost a puck battle and Kirby Dach forgot to cover his man when Jake Guentzel gave the Lightning a 2-0 lead early in the second period.

Fortunately, the resiliency we’ve come to expect did surface shortly thereafter, starting with a lucky goal from Juraj Slafkovsky.

Okay, let me rephrase that. He didn’t have a lot to shoot at, and you wouldn’t expect a goal in that situation, especially from a player like Slafkovsky, who traditionally shies away from shooting opportunities. The good news is that he decided to put the puck on net to see if good things would happen, as the saying goes.

The goal marked the first time this season that Slafkovsky has managed to score in back-to-back games, an encouraging sign for a player that probably didn’t deserve all the criticism he received regarding his production earlier in the year. The goal was assisted by Patrik Laine and Lane Hutson.

Fast Response

It took less than two minutes for the Habs to tie things up at 2, with Alex Newhook contributing his ninth goal of the year to the cause. As we all know, Newhook is all about playing at top speed, and though he’s a scoring threat whenever he exploits his tremendous skating, that hasn’t always been the case since his arrival in Montreal.

In recent games, we’ve seen him lean on his greatest strength, and that’s exactly what you want to see from the 23-year-old forward. Full marks to Laine for setting up the goal, his second assist of the game.

Evans Rekindles

Thanks to the late push from the Canadiens, not to mention some excellent goaltending from Samuel Montembeault, Jake Evans was in a position to give the Habs a 3-2 lead late in the third period.

We all know he enjoyed a lot of shooting luck earlier in the year, but lately, that has not been the case. The good news for Habs fans is that Evans made no mistake on Tuesday, making his 11th goal of the year crucial. We should also note Joel Armia recorded his 200th NHL point on the play.

The Montreal Canadiens are back in action on Thursday, facing the Red Wings in Detroit, with the puck drop scheduled for 7 pm ET. All Montreal Canadiens statistics are 5v5 unless otherwise noted, via Natural Stat Trick.