*Photo from Seattle Sports-My Northwest*
They aren't a good team, but boy do they play hard. Mike Hoffman scored, Evgenii Dadonov scored twice, and the Montreal Canadiens defeated the Winnipeg Jets with a 4-1 victory on Tuesday night in Montreal.
Getting the start in goal for the Canadiens was Sam Montembeault, who had a strong performance in a win. Montembeault stopped all but one of the 26 shots he was tested with, recording a .962 save percentage as his record bumps up to 9-7-2 on the season.
Montembeault said after the game that "We just beat two of the best teams in the League. So it just shows that when we play for 60 minutes and we play our kind of hockey that we can compete with anybody."
Starting the scoring early in the second period was Kyle Connor, giving the Jets a 1-0 lead with a power play goal 1:24 into the period. Dadonov tied it 7:46 into the second on his 3rd goal of the season. Hoffman followed that up with the go ahead goal before Dadonov scored again, making it 3-1 Canadiens after two periods.
After a bit of a wait, Josh Anderson scored the only goal of the 3rd for the Canadiens. At the 4:19 mark of the 3rd, Anderson found the back of the net for his 12th goal of the season, making the score 4-1 in favor of Montreal, which held up for the rest of the game. Assists were given to Mike Matheson and Kirby Dach.
Matheson said of what went right that "I think the biggest part was we didn't spend a lot of time in our zone. It didn't seem like there were any long shifts where they really sustained pressure against us and generating a lot of chances. So that's a great way to play when you're kind of cutting those down and going on offense with energy and possession."
The win for Montreal gives them two straight wins, the first time they've done that since November 23-25 of 2022. Missing Juraj Slafkovsky, Jake Evans, Jonathan Drouin, and Joel Armia, the Canadiens also picked up their 4th win in 6 games.
Starting in net for the Jets was Connor Hellebuyck, who was outplayed by Montembeault. Hellebuyck saved 24 out of the 28 Montreal shots that got to him, posting a .857 save percentage. His record drops to 22-11-1 with the loss.
Winnipeg head coach Rick Bowness said of the loss that "We didn't deserve to win that game. We were outplayed. We were behind them all night, made it very easy for them to play their game. So when the compete isn't there, and the legs aren't there and the execution isn't there, then you look bad. We looked bad."
Up next, the Canadiens remain at home to welcome the Florida Panthers to town on Thursday night, with Montembeault projected to get the start. Hellebuyck is the expected starter as the Jets travel to face the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday.
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