Slafkovsky scores first NHL goal in Canadiens win against Coyotes

MONTREAL --Juraj Slafkovsky scored his first NHL goal for the Montreal Canadiens in a 6-2 win against the Arizona Coyotes at Bell Centre on Thursday.

Slafkovsky, the No. 1 pick in the 2022 NHL Draft, scored on a wrist shot to give the Canadiens a 4-0 lead at 8:17 of the second period.
"I don't even remember how I scored the goal," he said. "I just went to celebrate because I think that's the best part of the goal, the [celebration]. I was focused more on the celebration than how I scored."
Slafkovsky was given a standing ovation when the goal was announced, which was also his first NHL point in his fifth career game.
"It's probably the best crowd, and I think there's nothing better that could happen after [my] first NHL goal than what happened out there," he said. "It's amazing."

Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki scored, and Jake Allen made 25 saves for Montreal (3-2-0).
"I thought we had a deep-game mentality early and possessing in the O-zone," Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said. "We got a few good bounces. We forced a team to turn pucks over, we played on top of them, which I felt we really did against [the Pittsburgh Penguins on Monday in a 3-2 overtime win], and we were opportunistic with our chances."
Travis Boyd had a goal and an assist, and Lawson Crouse had two assists for Arizona (1-3-0). Connor Ingram made 24 saves in his first start since he was claimed off waivers from the Minnesota Wild on Oct. 10.
"I think we owe [Ingram] one, that's for sure," Coyotes coach Andre Tourigny said. "I think their first four shots there were maybe four scoring chances. We didn't make it easy on him."
Josh Anderson made it 1-0 on Montreal's second shot of the game at 1:58 of the first period, knocking in a rebound after Jonathan Drouin's initial attempt hit the post.

Caufield and Brendan Gallagher then scored on the Canadiens' following two shots to push the lead to 3-0. Caufield capitalized on a turnover by Clayton Keller at 4:13 for his fourth goal of the season, and Gallagher converted from the left face-off circle at 7:17 for his first.
"We need to find a way to have more urgency to start a game, and it snowballed from there," Tourigny said. "Our play with the puck was nowhere near what it has to be in the first two periods. We played with more confidence in the third, we kind of regrouped, but that's on us. That's on me to find solutions."
After Slavkovsky's goal, Suzuki pushed it to 5-0 on a penalty shot at 18:27 of the second period. He started out wide before cutting across the crease and flipping the puck softly over Ingram's glove.
"I think I've tried to do it a couple of times," Suzuki said. "I honestly didn't really like my first look. He kind of came really far out of his crease, and then I just kind of improvised at the end."

J.J. Moser made it 5-1 at 6:21 of the third period, and Boyd cut it to 5-2 at 8:18 with a backdoor tap-in.
Sean Monahan scored an empty-net goal at 16:36 for the 6-2 final.
"Obviously, this is a tough place to come in to play, and really the last thing you want to do is spot them a few early into the first period," Keller said. "So I think puck management was a big part, and some of that's just, I guess, mentally not maybe being as prepared as a team as we need to be to start a game."
NOTES:Slafkovsky (18 years, 204 days) became the youngest Slovakia-born player to score his first NHL goal, passing Marian Gaborik of the Minnesota Wild (18 years, 235 days), and the fourth-youngest player to score for the Canadiens, behind Mario Tremblay (18 years, 75 days), Jesperi Kotkaniemi (18 years, 118 days) and Claude Lemieux (18 years, 141 days). Slafkovsky is also the second No. 1 pick to score his first goal in the same building he was drafted. Ed Jovanovski of the Florida Panthers was selected No. 1 in the 1994 NHL Draft and scored his first NHL goal at the Hartford Civic Center on Dec. 2, 1995.