(MTL VS EDM) Montreal's Special Teams Wins Them A Game

Early penalty kills and two power play goals led the Habs to a win Sunday Night

After a blown lead last night against the Rangers, the Habs were right back at it Sunday to face the surging Oilers. After an 8-3 drubbing at the hands of the Stars, Edmonton had won 5 of 7 games. McDavid had been red hot, including 3 points in yesterday's game against the Leafs.

However, Montreal was able to tame an early Oilers' storm and went on to win the game 4-1.

1st Period:

Immediately, after a failed Anderson breakaway, the Habs took back-to-back penalties to give the Oilers a full two minutes of 5 on 3. The last thing you want to do.

Miraculously, they killed the entire penalty off, including some big saves from Dobes.

Montreal played pretty well for the rest of the period, the teams trading fruitless powerplays during the latter half of the period. The game was scoreless after one period.

2nd Period:

After Demidov drew a penalty early on, he scored short side on the ensuing power play. A beautiful shot.

Nick Suzuki missed a breakaway, but McDavid turned the puck over a couple of minutes later right in front of the net. Veleno grabbed it, turned, and beat Pickard to make it 2-0 Habs.

Suzuki missed another breakaway (can we please score on a breakaway??), but they ended the period up two goals.

3rd Period:

After an early penalty was killed by Montreal, they got a power play. They scored another power-play goal when Slafkovsky passed it to Suzuki at the side of the net. He deflected it with his foot and made it 3-0 Habs.

After the fifth powerplay, Edmonton finally broke the shutout. Hyman put in a rebound to make it 3-1.

Luckily, Texier got the goal right back when he beat Pickard short-side on an odd-man rush to make 4-1. That's how the game would end.

4-1 Habs win.

Thoughts:

A good, solid win. It's not a good strategy to take five penalties against Edmonton, but their penalty kill was excellent. Plus, their power play notched two goals as well.

We are finally scoring from our bottom two lines. It is so nice to see.

They are playing better since that 6-1 slaughter at the hands of the Lightning. They've gotten 5 of their last 6 possible points, and are starting to get good goaltending. Their defense still needs work though....

Hab of the Night: Jacob Dobes

He and the team needed that performance. He was great. A big reason the Oilers didn't score on the powerplay early on in the game.

I hope they go with Fowler and Dobes as the tandem, but I do think they'll send Fowler down. Either way, Dobes is better than Monty right now.

Next Up: Vs Flyers:

Philadelphia's second trip to the Bell Center this season. The last game saw the Flyers win 5-4 in a shootout.

The two teams are tied in the standings with 38 points apiece, although the Flyers have a game in hand.

Article by Jacksen MacLean.