Mike Matheson stripped Mitch Marner of the puck and quickly transitioned it up to Alex Texier, who threaded a breakaway pass to Jake Evans for a goal that stood as the most representative play of the dominant third period the Montreal Canadiens played in Las Vegas.
They were alert, detailed, fast, mature, and precise, which is everything they weren’t at the start of this game.
Strangely, that appeared to be just what the doctor ordered for Canadiens goaltender Samuel Montembeault. It gave him an opportunity to do what he hadn’t been able to do in 12 other appearances this season, and one can only hope that capitalizing on it helped him redeem some of the confidence he’s lost since the puck dropped in the second week of October.
It's the confidence Montembeault needs, and the confidence the Canadiens need from him. Especially after it bottomed out in his last start, which came over a week ago.
That’s when Montembeault gave up three goals on 10 Washington Capitals shots before leaving his net for Jakub Dobes to guard for the next two-and-a-half games.
But after a week of hard work with goaltending coach Eric Raymond, and after a handful of practices with the Canadiens, Montembeault built some of his confidence back up against the Golden Knights on Friday.
After they traded shots with the Canadiens in the opening minute of play, the Golden Knights registered the next eight in the game, dominating territorially, knocking the Canadiens on their heels, and forcing Montembeault to stem the tide.
With Matheson in the box for slashing, he built a dam with three saves on slot shots for Tomas Hertl.
To see Montembeault in such control making them was reassuring.
He was well-positioned, patient, and deserving of a shutout, which was taken away by Mark Stone, who was left alone in front of him with just under five minutes to play.
But that didn’t detract from Montembeault being what he was conditioned to be over the week of work he did in preparation of this start.
“What I told myself all week was to stop thinking and just push,” he told reporters at T-Mobile Arena after making 29 saves in this 4-1 win.
Pushing was all Montembeault did directly following his disastrous outing against the Capitals.
There were 20 straight minutes of it at last Friday’s practice, with him pushing through his crease, pushing from post to post, pushing to the top of the blue paint, and pushing back to the goal line as he set and reset without even fielding shots.
The work that followed put the 29-year-old Becancour, Que., native back in the right frame of mind to do what he did against the Golden Knights.
It gave the Canadiens time to find their execution. And after they did and built a 2-0 lead through two periods, they played as good of a third period as we’ve seen from them this season — outscoring Vegas 2-1 and out-playing them soundly before Stone’s goal gave the Golden Knights one final burst of energy.
Montembeault snuffed that out, too, making saves on lethal shooters Jack Eichel and Pavel Dorofeyev before Juraj Slafkovsky scored into Akira Schmid’s vacated net.
“Now it’s time to build on that,” said Montembeault, “and find consistency off it.”
It’s what the Canadiens need.
They didn’t have any of it from either of their goaltenders in that 8-4 loss to Washington last Thursday — and for some time before it.
But Dobes, who will play Saturday against a Colorado Avalanche team that just had an 11-game winning streak halted with a 3-2 shootout loss to the Minnesota Wild on Friday Friday, stopped 24 of 26 shots in a 5-2 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs last Saturday before stopping 31 of 34 shots the Utah Mammoth threw at him in a 4-3 win for the Canadiens on Wednesday.
Their streak extended to three on Friday thanks to goals from Evans, Slafkovsky, Zach Bolduc and Cole Caufield, but largely thanks to Montembeault exhibiting the composure they were lacking at the start of the game.
He hadn’t shown it since the start of the season.
But if Friday’s game was a sign it’s returning to Montembeault, it’ll be great for both him and the Canadiens.
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