(MTL VS STL) Montreal Leaves Two Points On The Table

1 minute of bad play cost the Habs a winnable game.

Coming off back-to-back shootout wins, Montreal was looking to make it three in a row against the lowly Blues.... who are not a good team. They struggle to score, and their goaltending has been superb this year.

Neither of those was an issue for them tonight, as St Louis beat the Habs 4-3, getting better goaltending and capitalising on their few chances.

1st Period:

Montreal came out flying. They spent the first ten minutes in St Louis' zone, and drew a penalty as well. They did everything but score.

So, of course, the Blues opened the scoring on the second shot. On a pwerplay. Matheson deflected a point shot right to Schenn's stick, who put it into a wide-open net.

The Habs would respond quickly when Huston received a pass from Bolduc and dangled around Binnigton to tie the game. Great move.

Caufield scored late in the period to not only extend his point streak to 11 games, but also give Montreal a 2-1 lead after the first.

2nd Period:

The game was decided in the first minute of the second. They fell asleep and allowed a 2-1 goal 30 seconds in. That didn't wake them up, as 30 seconds later, a Blues player was left all alone in front of the net. He scored to give them a lead just over a minute into the second. The team looked asleep.

They woke up after that and were the vastly better team for the rest of the period. They should've scored, but got no bounces and Binnington played well. They went into the second intermission down 3-2.

3rd Period:

They were pretty bad to start the third period. They didn't get a shot on goal till over 5 minutes in.

And then Joe Veleno fell over at the blue line to allow an odd-man rush and make it 4-2 Blues. He's so useless.

Dobson scored late in the third to make it a one-goal game. St Louis did a good job after that of protecting the lead. Caufield had a couple of chances, but was denied.

Blues beat Habs 4-3.

Thoughts:

We should not be losing to the Blues at home. Those are two points we need.

Montreal was the much better team for most of the night, but a couple of defensive lapses cost them. The Blues were very opportunistic, while Montreal was not.

I can't blame Dobes for any of the goals, but he didn't make a big save. It would've been nice for him to save the 4-2 goals. It's hard to blame him since he played last night, but we got outgoalied. That seems to happen a lot.

Hab of the Night: Lane Hutson

He was everywhere tonight. Played over twenty-three minutes and scored.

Next Up: Vs Lightning

A big division battle. They play like they did tonight, and clean up the egregious lapses, they probably win.

Article by Jacksen MacLean.