Montreal's Nick Suzuki was denied on a creative scoring opportunity early in the Canadiens' 4-2 win over Calgary on Thursday night.聽
He tried the same move on Flames goalie Jacob Markstrom later in the game and it proved to be the game-winner. 聽
Suzuki faked a shot down low but instead of continuing with the puck behind the net, he banked it off the netminder from behind the goal line to put the Canadiens ahead to stay.聽
鈥淲e can see (he's) in a great run after going through a slow start,鈥� said Montreal head coach Dominque Ducharme. 鈥淗e doesn't need to be more intelligent than the game.
"I think he handled himself well tonight, he holds the team鈥檚 success at heart and he wants to make a difference.鈥澛�
With nine points in his last five games, Suzuki has carried the Canadiens of late.
鈥淗is role this season was to be the No. 1 centre and it started slow but he鈥檚 playing extremely well lately,鈥� said Montreal defenceman David Savard. 鈥淗e鈥檚 the reason we were successful tonight. He鈥檚 one of the players we notice a lot on the ice and he鈥檚 hard to play against.鈥�
Jake Evans iced the victory with an empty-netter. Ben Chiarot and Brendan Gallagher also scored for Montreal (4-10-3) and Jake Allen stopped 24 of 26 shots.
Mikael Backlund and Andrew Mangiapane had first-period goals for the Flames (7-3-3) in the opener of their six-game road trip. Calgary has dropped two in a row.
Flames goaltender Jacob Markstrom made 25 saves.
鈥淲e have a new game tomorrow so you can鈥檛 really dwell on it but tonight鈥檚 going to suck," Markstrom said. "We all wanted to get off on a good start.鈥� 聽
The Flames will continue their road swing with a visit to Toronto on Friday night.
鈥淲e鈥檙e a team that didn鈥檛 make the playoffs last year and we鈥檙e trying to stay in the race, that鈥檚 the key,鈥� said Flames head coach Darryl Sutter. 鈥淓very night is a tough game and we鈥檙e not a team that will score a lot so we鈥檒l need to do a lot of grinding and banging away.聽
"I think we did a lot more of that tonight than we did in the last couple of games.鈥澛�
Montreal picked up five points over its five-game stint at home.聽
鈥淲e鈥檝e dug ourselves a hole, we鈥檙e aware of that," Ducharme said. "But we鈥檙e not coming here telling ourselves that it鈥檚 over because of that. We'鈥檙e going to fight.鈥�
Calgary opened the scoring at 2:02 as Backlund deflected Trevor Lewis鈥檚 shot from the point.
Chiarot pulled Montreal even with his second goal in as many games. The defenceman rushed to the net and tapped in a loose puck in Markstrom鈥檚 crease.
Calgary took a 2-1 lead at 16:22 when Mangiapane accepted a cross-ice pass from Sean Monahan and notched his ninth goal of the season.聽
Montreal tied it up again at 11:24 of the second period. Chris Wideman hit the post with a point shot and Gallagher knocked in the rebound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 11, 2021.
Tristan D'Amours, The Canadian Press
