Montreal Canadiens' goaltender Sam Montembeault (35) celebrates his shutout win against Edmonton Oilers with teammate Jayden Struble (47) following third period NHL hockey action in Montreal, Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christinne Muschi
MONTREAL – Sam Montembeault is back on his game after a tough stretch in October.
Montreal’s goaltender was pulled twice in eight days when the Canadiens lost 7-2 to the New York Rangers on Oct. 22 and 8-2 to the Seattle Kraken on Oct. 29.
Now he’s riding a two-game win streak, including a 30-save shutout in Montreal’s 3-0 win over Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers on Monday.
“Probably the best player in the world,” Montembeault said of keeping McDavid off the scoresheet. “It’s obviously special.”
Montembeault also played the flawless game with Pittsburgh Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas watching from the Bell Centre press box. Dubas is also the assistant GM for Canada at the upcoming best-on-best 4 Nations Face-Off tournament in February.
“I’m happy he was here, I don’t think there could’ve been a better game for that,” said Montembeault, who was well aware Canada’s roster deadline is in two weeks. “There’s only positives in there.”
Montembeault, however, didn’t have to stand on his head.
The 28-year-old netminder, who has a .906 save percentage in 15 games this season, gave credit to the defensive effort in front of him.
The Oilers outshot the Canadiens 13-8 in the first period with multiple power-play opportunities and an extended stretch of 6-on-5 on a delayed penalty where Montembeault had to stand tall. Otherwise, Montreal held Edmonton to the outside and limited dangerous opportunities in the second and third periods.
Brendan Gallagher eventually opened the scoring with 31 seconds left in the second and the Canadiens didn’t look back.
“I give the game pretty high grade, that’s for sure,” head coach Martin St. Louis said of his team’s performance. “In the second and third, the way we managed the game, the way we connected defensively, offensively we knew where we were going.”
“I’m so proud of the guys,” Montembeault added. “We played well defensively. We didn’t give them too many chances. As the game was going on, we just got better and better.”
The Oilers lamented their lack of quality chances.
“I thought we played hard, I thought we controlled a lot of the puck, had some time in the offensive zone, but maybe a little bit too much perimeter,” forward Derek Ryan said. “You’re not gonna score pretty goals all the time. We gotta kind of grind it out and get a greasy one every now and then.”
The Oilers have only 50 goals in 19 games this season despite their star-studded roster of McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and the rest.
“We’re not scoring at the rate that we usually do right now,” defenceman Mattias Ekholm said. “When you don’t and things aren’t going your way, that’s you got to go back to your fundamentals and just play it simple.
“Unfortunately, we did not do a good enough job of that tonight. We’re playing OK, but we’re not playing good enough.”
GRITTY GUHLE
Canadiens defenceman Kaiden Guhle blocked a hard one-timer by Oilers blue-liner Evan Bouchard with his right arm early in the first period. He dropped to the ice before immediately rushing to the dressing room in noticeable pain, with teammates hearing him exclaim “Ow!”
“It hurt. Got some scans on it, it was good, taped it up and got a couple meds, a little numbing cream and good to go,” Guhle said.
The 22-year-old from Edmonton returned to start the second and beat Calvin Pickard short side to put Montreal up 2-0 in the third period against his hometown team.
Despite getting in front of Bouchard’s bomb, Guhle wasn’t credited with a blocked shot because the puck trickled through to Montembeault. But he was happy to score later.
“He earned that one,” Gallagher said. “He does a lot for our group, doesn’t always get rewarded on the stat sheet, but it was nice to see him put one in tonight.
“Hometown team, probably a little more special, because I’m sure his family still cheers for the Oilers.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 18, 2024.
