Cayden Primeau made 13 saves in a 5-0 win over the Ducks to give Montreal its first shutout since Valentine’s Day 2023.
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Nick Suzuki and Juraj Slafkovsky each had three points in a 5-0 win for the Montreal Canadiens over the Anaheim Ducks at the Bell Centre on Tuesday night.
In his first start since Jan. 18, Cayden Primeau made 13 saves to record the club’s first shutout in nearly a year. Jake Allen got the last one on Valentine’s Day in 2023.
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The Ducks tried to push back physically, but the Canadiens were willing to answer the bell when called upon: Arber Xhekaj, Johnathan Kovacevic and Kaiden Guhle all dropped the gloves.
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The Habs outshot the Ducks 38-13 in the contest, starting with a lopsided first period on the shot counter. Montreal outshot them 12-6 in the first, but the game remained scoreless.
Montreal scored three unanswered goals in the second. Jake Evans and Tanner Pearson executed a perfect give-and-go, with Evans roofing the puck over Lukas Dostal on the backhand. 1-0 Habs. David Savard started things off by forcing a turnover in Montreal’s defensive zone.
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Savard helped kick-start yet another two-on-one, this time ending with Slafkovsky sliding a perfect pass over to Suzuki, who didn’t even have to move his stick to redirect it in past Dostal. Jayden Struble sent the puck off the boards to get Slafkovsky going.
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Slafkovsky set up Suzuki again for his second goal of the period, this time on the power play. Montreal led 3-0 after 40 minutes.
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In the third period, Cole Caufield might’ve felt left out with his two linemates connecting on two goals without him, but he notched an assist on Slafkovsky’s first goal of the night. This one also came on the power play. Montreal had a commanding 4-0 lead.
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And then Brandon Gignac had a little help from his friends Xhekaj and Guhle to set him up for his first career NHL goal. It put the Habs up 5-0.
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Slafkovsky now has 12 points in his last 11 games. His six-game point scoring streak is now tied for the longest by a teenager on the Habs since Doug Wickenheiser. Slafkovsky’s 20 points in his last 24 games is also the most by a Hab teen in a 24-game span since Stéphane Richer.
Suzuki has nine points in his last four games since returning from the all-star break, and is flirting with a point-per-game season with 51 points in 53 games. Caufield ended the night with one assist, but also fired eight shots on net. In all, the top line contributed 16 of the team’s 38 shots. This is a one-line team at the moment, but that one line has been worth the price of admission.
On another positive note, Guhle shook off whatever was ailing him enough to end his Sunday prematurely and Struble dusted himself off after arguably his worst game as a pro, as you can see from Hockey Stat Cards.
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It wasn’t exactly the 1972 Summit Series, but the Habs as a team put their weekend struggles in the rear-view and delivered their first complete 60 minute performance in quite some time. They even matched up physically against a Ducks team that brought aboard Radko Gudas to patrol the blue line.
Some of the Liveblog commenters were just as happy to see the Habs show toughness as they were about the win itself. It speaks to what fans want to see in the dog days of the 2023-24 regular season as the Habs once again find themselves on the outside of the playoff picture: they don’t want to see this young team back down and accept losing. The team will probably lose more games than it wins the rest of the way, and the worst thing that can happen is have complacency kick in. If they’re going to go down, don’t go down without a fight.
3. “Good to see these guys get Primer a shutout and good to see them layin down the law,” -Max Gray
2. “Arber, Pez, Struble out there last shift. We got more muscle.” -Mick Chow
1. “Been an interesting season of redemption for prospects. We know how many wrote off Slaf so quickly. Wrong (and silly — he was 18). But a lot of people began to think Struble would never be anything other than a #6 or #7 defenseman and that Primeau should be dumped for a bag of pucks. Wrong. And wrong again.” -Michael Way
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