By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
The winning team jumped out to a first period lead, relied on rock-solid goaltending and played opportunistic hockey tonight.
No, it wasn’t the Vegas Golden Knights.
It was the Montreal Canadiens, which flipped the script on VGK and came away with a split of the first two games in Las Vegas with a 3-2 win Wednesday in front of an announced attendance of 17,920.
Montreal goaltender Carey Price showed why so many hockey fans were looking forward to this showdown of netminders between VGK goalie Marc-Andre Fleury and Price.
The Golden Knights turned up the juice in the third period, applying pressure to try and tie the score. But Price stood tall. stopping 29 of 31 shots on goal. The VGK looked in the final period after starting sluggishly in the first period. VGK defenseman Alex Pietrangelo scored the sole goal in period three to cut the Canadiens lead to 3-2, but the Knights could not notch the equalizer despite lots of pressure on Price and the Habs.
With the NHL semifinal tied at one game each, the Best-of-7 Final 4 series shifts to Montreal for the first games between a team from the U.S. and a team from Canada in the Canadian team’s home rink since March 2020. Games 3 and 4 are Friday and Sunday.
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The Montreal Canadiens played VGK-style hockey through two periods — opportunistic goal-scoring and relying on a dominant goaltender who robbed the Knights several times in the game.
Price stonewalled VGK’s Alec Martinez and played well throughout the middle stanza until VGK defenseman Alex Pietrangelo scored from the point through a maze of players. Somehow the shot he flipped found its way through the web of players on both teams and past Price.
After two periods, Montreal led Vegas, 3-1, with Paul Byron scoring for the Canadiens. Fleury tried to poke check the puck from Byron. But he missed and Byron flipped in an easy goal to give the Canadiens a 3-0 lead before Pietrangelo scored with only 1:14 left in the middle period.
Vegas played with more passion and energy than it did in the first 20 minutes. The Knights outshot Montreal 10-4 in the second period.
The Knights missed not having fast-skating center Chandler Stephenson in the lineup. He anchors a line with wingers Mark Stone and Max Pacioretty. The Vegas squad is thin at center and it showed Wednesday when coach Pete DeBoer inserted Keegan Kolesar between Stone and Pacioretty. Pacioretty did his the post with one shot, but his line was held goal-less tonight.
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After one period in Las Vegas, the Montreal Canadiens lead the Vegas Golden Knights, 2-0.
Montreal’s Joel Armia scored at 6:12 into the first period.
VGK netminder Marc-Andre Fleury then allowed a weak goal by Montreal when Canadiens forward Tyler Toffoli let loose with a change-of-pace shot that got by Fleury with only 3:30 left in the first period.
After one period: Montreal 2 Vegas 0
Take: VGK not playing with the same juice and passion they showed against Minnesota and Colorado the first two rounds.
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