Kyle Connor scored twice for the Winnipeg Jets in a 4-1 win over the Canadiens on Tuesday at the Bell Centre.
The Habs kept the league-leading Jets power play at bay on the night, but Montreal failed to follow up a perfect 3-3 on the penalty kill with any power plays of their own. The disciplined Jets never hit the sin bin.
Sam Montembeault got the nod in goal and stopped 20 of 23 shots. At the other end, reigning Vézina champ Connor Hellebuyck only allowed one goal on 25 shots.
In the third period, defenceman Kaiden Guhle fell awkwardly into the boards and struggled to leave the ice on his own weight. His night ended prematurely.
Last night was a tale of two periods: Montreal dominated the first and Winnipeg dominated the second.
Habs came out swinging from the opening puck drop. They outshot the Jets 15-7 in the first. The top line continued to rack up points when Juraj Slafkovsky put the Habs on the board with a one-timer goal. Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield drew assists. Slaf has eight points in his last 11 games. 1-0 Habs.
Before the end of the first period, Connor cashed in on a loose puck in front to tie the game 1-1.
The Jets turned the tables in the second. On their 10th shot of the period, before Montreal even got one, Mark Scheifele gave the Jets a 2-1 lead. Based on audience reaction, there’s still bad blood among the fanbase for his late hit on Jake Evans in the 2021 playoffs.
The Jets ended the second period with another goal in the dying moments. Connor scored his second of the night with 1.5 seconds remaining. They ultimately outshot the Habs 13-3 in the middle frame.
In the third period, the Canadiens found some life, but a post from a Lane Hutson shot and a point-blank save by Hellebuyck on Suzuki was as close as they got. Rasmus Kupari scored in an empty net with 1:45 left on the clock to make it 4-1.
Coach Martin St. Louis juggled the defensive pairings before the game, placing Guhle with Hutson and Mike Matheson with Alexandre Carrier. If Guhle is out for a longer period of time, the coach will have to make more adjustments. Could they finally achieve balance with their righties and lefties by recalling Logan Mailloux from Laval?
There’s no shame in losing to the Jets. With their fourth straight victory, they’re the first team in the league to reach 35 wins. Scheifele and Connor are both a goal away from 30. Hellebuyck is the best goalie in the world right now.
That being said, the Canadiens reversed their trend of poor starts from the jump, but failed to maintain the momentum. They actually did put themselves in a position to upset the Jets and couldn’t pull it off.
Here’s what the Liveblog commenters had to say about last night’s loss.
3. “We were beating some of the top ranked teams for a while … would have been nice to do it again tonight, but reality strikes … we may or may not make the playoffs, but still have some ‘building’ to do.” — Haari Meech
2. “Evans has slowly returned to …. Evans. I hope we don’t end up over paying this guy. Yes he’s valuable. But I hope they look at the whole rather than a nice stretch of 25 games.” — Marc Taillefer
1. “Habs started really strong, but slowly Winnipeg just took over the game. Good effort in the third to try and come back, but Winnipeg played well with the lead and just slowed the game down. Lost the game but by far the biggest hit might be losing Ghule. Keep our fingers crossed.” — Doug Kirkby