MONTREAL 鈥� Sam Montembeault is back on his game after a tough stretch in October.
Montreal鈥檚 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鈥檚 riding a two-game win streak, including a 30-save shutout in Montreal鈥檚 3-0 win over Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers on Monday.
"Probably the best player in the world,鈥� Montembeault said of keeping McDavid off the scoresheet. 鈥淚t's obviously special.鈥�
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 sa国际传媒 at the upcoming best-on-best 4 Nations Face-Off tournament in February.
鈥淚鈥檓 happy he was here, I don鈥檛 think there could鈥檝e been a better game for that,鈥� said Montembeault, who was well aware sa国际传媒鈥檚 roster deadline is in two weeks. 鈥淭here鈥檚 only positives in there.鈥�
Montembeault, however, didn鈥檛 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鈥檛 look back.
鈥淚 give the game pretty high grade, that鈥檚 for sure,鈥� head coach Martin St. Louis said of his team鈥檚 performance. 鈥淚n the second and third, the way we managed the game, the way we connected defensively, offensively we knew where we were going.鈥�
鈥淚'm so proud of the guys,鈥� Montembeault added. 鈥淲e played well defensively. We didn't give them too many chances. As the game was going on, we just got better and better.鈥�
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,鈥� 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,鈥� defenceman Mattias Ekholm said. 鈥淲hen 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.
鈥淯nfortunately, we did not do a good enough job of that tonight. We're playing OK, but we're not playing good enough.鈥�
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 鈥淥w!鈥�
鈥淚t 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,鈥� 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鈥檚 bomb, Guhle wasn鈥檛 credited with a blocked shot because the puck trickled through to Montembeault. But he was happy to score later.
"He earned that one,鈥� Gallagher said. 鈥淗e 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.
Daniel Rainbird, The Canadian Press
