Ryan Poehling had a strong second half. Jesse Ylonen was one of the best players in the second period. Arber Xhekaj was quite strong. But all of these flashes came after the team’s top unit of Suzuki, Toffoli, Gallagher, Petry, and Romanov stepped up and led the way as the Habs played a fundamentally strong game to earn a 2-1 win over Ottawa on Saturday night.
As is usually the case, Monday’s preseason contest against Toronto was not very exciting. However, the team’s would be second line had a huge night as they hit the back of the net three times and combined for 10 points in a 5-2 victory.
The Habs played with tons of courage in Game 5 on Wednesday night, but the Lightning got a goal from Ross Colton in the second period and were able to trap their way to a 1-0 victory to take home the 2021 Stanley Cup.
In a game that likely took ten years off every single Habs fans’ life, Montreal blew two different one-goal leads before finding themselves shorthanded for four minutes with the game on the line. Price was heroic, Suzuki was on another level, and Anderson scored two huge goals as the Habs forced Game 5 with a 3-2 overtime victory.
After dominating the first forty minutes of the game, the Habs found themselves down 2-1. Tampa Bay shut things down in the third and the Habs simply didn’t have the offensive firepower to overcome the Lightning’s solid defensive play who got the 3-1 win and the 2-0 series lead in large part thanks to Andrei Vasilevskiy.
The Habs leaned on a defensive structure that has been frustrating their opponents all postseason to frustrate the Golden Knights on Tuesday night which helped them secure a 4-1 victory to take a 3-2 series lead.
The Habs once again came out strong, took a lead, and were ultimately able to hang on for the 3-2 win on Wednesday night as they split the road game giving them home-ice advantage moving forward.
The Habs came out strong on Monday but couldn’t beat a floundering Marc-Andre Fleury. Ten minutes later, the Knights woke up and the Habs didn’t have an answer other than Carey Price’s continued heroics but it wasn’t enough as the Golden Knights opened the series with a 4-1 win.
The Habs were the better team for most of Monday’s Game 4 which was surprising given the fact that the Jets had their season on the line. Montreal let up enough in the second for Winnipeg to get back in the game, but the Suzuki-Caufield overtime magic was just too irresistible as they found an open Toffoli to end the series with a 3-2 victory, sending the Habs to a final-four appearance.
The Habs got another early lead and didn’t look back. Joel Armia had a pair of shorthanded tallies as special teams played a big role on Sunday night as Montreal skated away with a 5-1 victory, extending their series lead on Winnipeg to 3-0.