Canadiens: Mission Accomplished

The Montreal Canadiens turned up in Dallas having lost just one of their last five games and as luck would have it, that one came against tonight's hosts the Dallas Stars. This time around, Martin St-Louis decided to give the start to Jakub Dobes who was trying to win a fourth game in as many starts.

The Stars weren't about to roll over though, less than four minutes into the game, Jason Robertson, who had beaten Samuel Montembeault in the shootout on Saturday, scored the first goal. The fans weren't even done cheering when Cole Caufield fed Juraj Slafkovsky in front of Jake Oettinger's net and the power forward tied up the game.

Both teams were heavily focussed on the attack, but the netminders shut the door for the rest of the frame. For a second game in a row, Michael Pezzetta took an ill advised penalty. I have nothing against Pezzetta, but these days he looks like a toddler who's testing the limits with his dad. While there was no harm done since Dallas, didn't score, it's yet another indication that Kent Hughes should consider a callup to replace Emil Heineman. In the end, the gritty winger got seven shifts tonight for a total of 4:31 of ice time.

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If the Canadiens led 11-7 in shots after 20 minutes, the second frame belonged to the Stars shots wise. The Texan outfit took 15 shots on Dobes in the second, but couldn't beat him once, nor could the Habs beat Oettinger however. Once again tonight, Dobes looks at ease in net and supremely confident poking players and adding a bit of mustard on simple saves at times. There's absolutely no doubt his poise is great for the team's confidence.

In this frame, Joel Armia's work really stood out and at both ends of the ice as well. In his own zone after giving his stick to defenseman Alexandre Carrier, he played perhaps one of the best defensive shift I've seen him play since joining the Canadiens seven years ago.

Dallas dominated in the final frame has well, pilling up another 11 shots on Dobes but he remained unbeatable. Meanwhile, the Canadiens only obtained four shots in those 20 minutes, but they made them call. After an icing, Alex Newhook won the faceoff, Lane Hutson took a quick shot from far out that Newhook deflected himself to put the Habs up by one.

Peter DeBoer tried his best by pulling his goalie early, but Montreal played a nearly perfect last five minutes. Armia once again shone blocking passes and was rewarded with an empty net goal, the 100th of his career.

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Final score, 3-1 Montreal. It's the first time the Canadiens win four games in a row on the road since Feb. 2021 when the Habs played in the Canadian division thanks to Covid. Dobes becomes the fifth goalie in franchise history to win his first four games with the Habs after Wayne Thomas (he won seven), Ken Dryden (he won six), Charlie Lindgren (he won five) and Mike Condon (he won four). With 32 saves on 33 shots, he finished his night with a .970 save percentage.

The Canadiens will now head back home where they'll play a back-to-back this weekend, taking on the Toronto Maple Leafs (who will be without John Tavares) on Saturday and the New York Rangers on Sunday.

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