The Canadiens were outplayed for most of the night but managed to take a 2-1 lead in their best-of-seven show from the Stanley Cup semi-finals. It had been the first time in 10 games this postseason where they’ve won when they did not score . Game 4 will be performed , again on home icehockey on Sunday night.
Anderson, who hadn’t scored since the very first game of the first round, snuck a backhand into the net to tie it late after a terrible gaffe by Vegas goalie Marc-André Fleury. A three-time Stanley Cup-winner in Pittsburgh, Fleury mishandled a puck behind the internet and it then trickled over to Anderson for the easy goal.
Anderson then sent the audience into hysterics when he beat Fleury in additional time.
Carey Price had 43 saves for the Canadiens, who have been outshot 45 to 27.
“We just didn’t stop,” Price explained. “That is most likely the easiest way to describe it. We just responding to hardship and do it.”
Following a regular season that was shortened and then interrupted by COVID-19, the pandemic became a problem in the playoffs for the first time.
Dominique Ducharme, the interim head coach of the Canadiens, was forced into quarantine at home at Montreal after it was verified in the morning which he had tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Ducharme had flown back with the team in Las Vegas on Thursday. Tests administered to the players, coaches and other members of the staff have come back negative so far.
Throughout a late-afternoon news conference, Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin stated he spoke to Ducharme twice throughout the day and that the interim head coach felt fine. It is unknown how long Ducharme will be away.
Ducharme, who took over in April after Claude Julien was fired, spoke to the players on a video call before and after the game.
In Ducharme’s absence, assistant coach Luke Richardson was assigned to run on the Montreal seat, with assistance from fellow supporters Alex Burrows and Sean Burke. Seconds after the game ended, Richardson tapped at his chest over his heart for a tribute to Ducharme.
“This is a challenging time for everyone,” Richardson, who was credited with his first NHL-coaching victory, said. “I felt bad for Dom for missing it. After we won, the guys were thrilled for him and wanted to share the party with him.”
The loss was tough to swallow for Vegas, the top-seeded team staying in the playoffs. The Golden Knights didn’t make Fleury, who stopped 24 of 27 shots but cost his team the victory, accessible for post-game interviews.
“Fleury’s played great for us all year,” Mark Stone, the Golden Knights captain, stated. “It was just an unfortunate bounce. There’s not anything you can do about it.”
“I saw him in the hallway between the third period and overtime and said,’Let’s get this back,'” Vegas coach Pete DeBoer stated of Fleury.
After being outplayed in the first period of the first two matches, the Golden Knights were desperate to have a better start.
They got one — but went into their dressing room after 20 minutes without a goal for the third consecutive contest. In the first period, they peppered Cost with 17 shots to no avail. With Vegas playing tight defence, Montreal wasn’t able to create its first shot on net until 8:33 of the first. At the first intermission, the Canadiens had been outshot 17-3.
Unlike in Las Vegas, where the first two meetings attracted full houses, the audience at the Bell Centre was limited to 3,500 audiences. The former Montreal captain was traded to the Golden Knights during the 2018 off-season.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, who’s jeered by fans around the league nearly for sport, attended his first match of the semi-finals and didn’t get treated anywhere near as badly as Pacioretty. The Montreal loyal also serenaded the visiting goaltender –“Fleury, Fleury” — when he had another shaky minute in overtime, also showed their displeasure with the officers when Corey Perry was struck by a high stick in overtime and it went undetected.
“Refs, you suck!” The crowd chanted.
The Golden Knights eventually broke through when centre Nicolas Roy converted a turnover by Eric Staal to a goal with 16:44 staying in the next period. The score came in their 22nd prospect of the evening.
It required Montreal only 38 minutes to get even. It was the fifth consecutive game where Caufield, a 20-year-old newcomer, has listed a point and his second objective of the playoffs.
From that point, the teams exchanged dangerous chances, with Price and Fleury both proving to be up to this job. The period ended in a 1-1 deadlock despite Vegas holding a 30-8 edge in shots on the net.
Alex Pietrangelo snapped a wrist shot past Price early in the third period for what looked to be the winning target until the waning seconds.
“We needed to press in the next period and got a fortunate bounce on the tying goal,” Anderson stated. “It looked like we had more energy than them in a huge game we needed to win”
Montreal was the lowest-ranked group to reach postseason but came back from a 3-1 series deficit to beat the Maple Leafs, and then swept the Winnipeg Jets in the second round.
They would not have won without Price, who has ceased 72 of 76 shots over the 2 games.
“It was amazing to watch him play like that, not only for me but for our fans,” Anderson stated. “He kept us in the game throughout the evening. We wouldn’t be sitting in this place without him.”
The Canadiens got donations from all over the lineup. Paul Byron, a 165-pound ahead, had nine hits. Shea Weber logged 31 minutes 17 seconds of ice time.
“We knew that it was going to be critical to get ahead in the series,” Anderson said. “We didn’t come out and perform the way we needed to in the beginning, but we found a way to triumph. It was a full team effort”
