The Habs dominated the Nordiques at the Bell Centre

Michaël Petit
The Habs dominated the Nordiques at the Bell Centre
Credit: InTheLockerRoom.com

The Montreal Canadiens hosted the rare visit of the Quebec Nordiques at the Bell Centre on Thursday night.

For the occasion, both teams wore colored jerseys (habs: red, Avalanche: blue).

Honestly, the NHL should do this more often, color-on-color matchups.

For the game, Martin St-Louis used the same forward trios, but the three defensive pairs changed.

Lane Hutson played with Noah Dobson, Mike Matheson played with Kaiden Guhle, and Alexandre Carrier played with Arber Xhekaj.

Once again, Jakub Dobes was in goal for the habs.

The Canadiens quickly opened the scoring with a goal from Dobson. The new Hutson-Dobson pairing has definitely paid off for the Habs.

Oliver Kapanen won the faceoff, Juraj Slafkovsky passed to Hutson, who found Dobson. Dobson fired on reception and Scott Wedgewood had no chance.

However, the fun didn't last long, as Brock Nelson beat Dobson with a screened shot.

The captain was determined to regain the lead, and he did just that thanks to a rebound from Ivan Demidov during a powerplay. Hutson earned his second assist of the game.

Less than two minutes later, Suzuki wasn't satisfied with just regaining the lead. He broke away on a penalty kill thanks to a beautiful lob pass from Kapanen, and the captain doubled his team's lead.

He used a deke on Wedgewood, who was unable to stop the puck.

The first period was largely dominated by the habs, who led 9-5 in shots.

After 20 minutes of play, the score was 3-1 in favor of the Habs.

In the second period, Jakub Dobes' brilliance stood out.

The young Czech goaltender stopped 11 of 12 Avalanche shots in the second period, making several big saves.

Shortly after the midway point of the game, the entire Bell Centre held its breath as fans watched Kaiden Guhle retreat to the locker room after a dangerous check by Josh Manson.

After review, no penalty was called, as Guhle protected his face with his arm, which took the full brunt of the hit. If he hadn't put his arm up, the consequences could have been much more serious for Guhle, and Manson would likely have been ejected.

It's a bit ridiculous that it wasn't penalized. Manson was aiming for the head (with his elbow) and Guhle simply protected himself.

It took nearly 17 minutes to see a goal in this period, and it was Jake Evans who tripled his team's lead.

The #71 took advantage of Wedgewood's generosity behind his net to steal the puck and score into an empty net.

Kaiden Guhle and Zachary Bolduc earned assists on the goal.

Forty seconds later, Kirby Dach made it 5-1 for the habs with a goal similar to Evans'. However, Wedgewood was in his net.

It was definitely not Wedgewood's game, as he allowed five goals on 19 shots…

Bolduc picked up his second point of the game on Dach's goal.

Fortunately for the Avalanche, Joel Kiviranta saved his team's evening by narrowing the gap to three goals.

After the second period, the score was 5-2 in favor of the habs.

With just under five minutes played in the third period, Ross Colton made it 5-3.

Fortunately for the habs, Alexandre Carrier quickly responded by scoring his sixth goal of the season on a pass from Suzuki and Dach.

A few minutes later, Juraj Slafkovsky scored his 20th goal of the season. Wedgewood looked like Dobes in his worst moments in his career, he was so out of position.

Demidov got his second assist of the game on that goal, as did Kapanen.

That was Wedgewood's seventh goal allowed on only 26 shots.

The Habs took advantage of the Avalanche goalie's generosity to score at will.

Final score: 7-3 for the Habs.

The Habs' next game will be next Saturday against the Sabres in Buffalo.


Overtime

– What stood out most in the game were the 21 shots blocked by the Habs throughout the game. Only five players on the Montreal club did not block any shots (Guhle, Xhekaj, Caufield, Danault, and Anderson).

– With his quick goal early in the game, Dobson moved closer to Shea Weber's mark for most goals by a defenseman on a new team. Will he be able to catch up?

– Nick Suzuki joined the ranks of Canadiens legends with his 60th point of the season (his first point of the game).

– Jakub Dobes was excellent in the game, except for Colorado's first goal, which he certainly could have stopped. He held down the fort with some big saves, especially in the second period, to keep his team in the game. As for the second and third goals Dobes allowed in the game, there wasn't much he could do on those plays. He ultimately stopped 26 of 29 Avalanche shots.

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