GAME RECAP: Canadiens 5, Oilers 2

EDMONTON, AB - The Montreal Canadiens continued their strong play under Head Coach Martin St. Louis on Saturday night by defeating the Edmonton Oilers 5-2 on Hockey Night in Canada in front of the first capacity crowd at Rogers Place in three months.
Nick Suzuki had a goal and two assists, while Sam Montembault made 28 saves on 30 shots for the Canadiens who've now won seven of their last eight games under St. Louis.
Evander Kane notched his sixth goal of the season and third tally in two games with a first-period marker just 22 seconds after Montreal opened the scoring, while Ryan McLeod scored his sixth of the campaign in the middle frame to level the score again for the Oilers before Nick Suzuki responded with the game-winning goal five minutes later as part of the three-point night for the Canadiens forward.
The Oilers fall to 30-22-4 on the season and have now lost 11 of their last 16 games on home ice.

YOUR GAME-DAY ESSENTIALS

GAME DAY
Photo Gallery
Full Highlights
Look Back at the In-Game Blog
POST-GAME VIDEO
OILERS TODAY | Post-Game vs. MTL
POST-RAW | Coach Woodcroft
POST-RAW | Connor McDavid
POST-GAME UPDATES
Inside The Oilers Blog

FIRST BLOOD

Caufield toe-dragged the puck coming into the slot past a sliding William Lagesson and sniped the opening goal and his eighth of the season unassisted into the far corner past Mike Smith on a nice shot that was celebrated by the plenty of Red & White in the crowd at Rogers Place.
Caufield struggled early in the season but now has six goals and seven assists in 10 games since Martin St. Louis took over behind the Montreal bench on Feb. 9.

IMMEDIATE ANSWER

Just 22 seconds after conceding the opening goal, Kane and Leon Draisaitl connected on a nice passing play to level the scoring in rapid style. Draisaitl looked over his shoulder sent it in front from the halfboards onto the tape of Kane, who quickly turned in front of goal around a Montreal defenceman and slapped it under the right pad of Montembault.

SAVE OF THE GAME

We could go the unofficial route, or the official route. Montembault came up with a monstrous stop on Draisaitl for the save of the game that didn't count when he reached out and made a last-ditch glove save after time had expired in the dying moments of the first frame, while Smith made his best stop of the game on a breakaway opportunity for Brendan Gallagher a minute-and-a-half into the second period.

THE (OVER)TURNING POINT

Shoutout to Oilers Video Coach Jeremy Coupal with the eye in the sky at Rogers Place on Saturday night. The Oilers successfully challenged two offside plays that led to goals for the Canadiens in the second period to keep the Blue & Orange in the game and prevent the visitors from running away with it in the second frame. Earlier in the period, Montreal challenged McLeod's sixth goal of the season for goaltender interference to no avail after Zach Hyman was deemed to be guided by Alexander Romanov into the Montreal crease, where the Oilers forward made contact with Montembault before McLeod flipped the rebound over the netminder's left pad.

TOP PERFORMER

Suzuki had a goal and two assists for the Canadiens, including scoring a goal on a snipe midway through the second period that mirrored the Montreal forward's disallowed goal 28 seconds earlier. The Habs also received two-point nights from Brendan Gallagher and Caufield in the victory.

SOLIDARITY WITH UKRAINE

There were still two anthems played pre-game at Rogers Place on Saturday night despite it being an all-Canadian matchup on Hockey Night in Canada. With the ongoing unrest overseas in Ukraine, the Axios Ukrainian Men's Ensemble performed beautiful renditions of the Ukrainian and Canadian national anthems to a split full-capacity crowd of Montreal and Edmonton fans as plenty of blue and yellow flags waved proudly in the stands.
"The Edmonton Oilers and everyone at Oilers Entertainment Group stand in solidarity with the people of Ukraine," said Executive Vice President, OEG Communications & Gaming Tim Shipton in an interview with CTV News. "Alberta is home to more than 345,000 people of Ukrainian heritage, and their culture and traditions are a significant part of the fabric of our community here in Oil Country."

PARTING WORDS

McDavid on what was missing against the Canadiens:
"Just not good enough. They're a team that's obviously playing well since their coaching change, and they were better than us tonight."

Coach Woodcroft on his assessment of the loss:
"We lost the special teams battle. Not good enough on our penalty kill, and although our powerplay had chances, it didn't generate the way we wanted to. In the end, we gave up two goals on the penalty kill... We're going to digest it and work on it moving forward here."
Woodcroft on what he saw from the Oilers art even strength:
"We didn't have the game we wanted to. I'm not going to dress it up and put a bow on it and say we just didn't get what we needed out there. We weren't good enough in a lot of areas tonight. That said, it was a 3-2 hockey game heading into the third period. We had a chance to fight our way back in. We didn't do it tonight. Like I said, we're going to digest it, we'll review it tomorrow, work on something in practice and then move on from there."