The Montreal Canadiens suffered their third straight loss in Pittsburgh on Saturday night.
By Rick Stephens, Rocket Sports, Montreal Canadiens Blogger
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GAME RECAP | Montreal Canadiens 1 vs Pittsburgh Penguins 3 | FINAL
Canadiens record: 4-7-1 | 9 points (29th in NHL)
Canadiens Lineup
Forwards
13 Cole Caufield - 14 Nick Suzuki - 17 Josh Anderson
15 Alex Newhook - 77 Kirby Dach - 20 Juraj Slafkovsky
40 Joel Armia - 71 Jake Evans - 11 Brendan Gallagher
51 Emil Heineman - 28 Christian Dvorak - 91 Oliver Kapanen
Defensemen
8 Mike Matheson - Kaiden Guhle
48 Lane Hutson - 58 David Savard
72 Arber Xhekaj - 47 Jayden Struble
Goaltenders
Starter: 35 Sam Montembeault
Alternate: 30 Cayden Primeau
Out of the lineup
Scratches: Michael Pezzetta, Justin Barron
Injuries: Carey Price, Rafael Harvey-Pinard, Patrik Laine
Game Report
It was a short road trip but the Canadiens were anxious to get home after dropping both contests against the Capitals and Penguins. But as their charter aircraft was being serviced for the trip to Montreal, the wing was clipped by a tanker truck. It means that the team will spend another night in Pittsburgh thinking about what they weren't able to accomplish at PPG Paints Arena.
"I think we were there defensively in the first two periods, but our touches weren't clean," said Marty St. Louis. "The puck was bouncing a lot. We left a lot of chances on the table. In the third, our touches were good, but we didn't score."
After two lopsided losses earlier in the week by a combined score of 14-5, the Canadiens delivered a much better effort against the Penguins. But limiting chances meant sacrificing their own opportunities. Montreal looked tentative, seemingly playing not to lose, or at least not lose big against one of the worsr defensive teams in the league.
It was a low event contest with high danger scoring chances at 5-on-5 calculated as 9-7 for the Penguins (Natural Stat Trick.)
We played a solid game in front of [Sam Montembeault] so he didn't have to do a lot of work," said St. Louis. "The scoring chances were lower than the other games, the quality too."
Montembeault made 21 saves in a losing effort running his record to 3-5-0 with a 3.43 goals against average and an .894 save percentage.
The Habs offense was supplied by fourth line centre Christian Dvorak, scoring his first goal of the season. Emil Heineman made a solid play on the forecheck to disrupt the Penguins zone exit and then fed Dvorak for the Canadiens only goal of the game.
St. Louis continues to look for the right match to compliment his top line. Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield welcomed Josh Anderson to the trio, the third different linemate in the last three games.
Sidney Crosby scored twice for the Penguins including a power play goal. The Canadiens went 0-for-2 with the man advantage. Montreal's power play has just one goal in their last 12 opportunities after a sizzling start to the season.
Quick hits
⦁ Juraj Slafkovsky headed to the dressing room in the third period after taking a shoulder to the head from Penguins forward Noel Acciari.
Up Next
The Canadiens will return home on Sunday for a Tuesday night match against the Calgary Flames at the Bell Centre.
Listen to a new episode of the Canadiens Connection podcast!
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