A difficult five-game road trip continued Tuesday night for the Montreal Canadiens with a date in Edmonton.
The Oilers are one of the hottest clubs in the league, but don’t always have great goaltending, so Montreal had hoped to catch that advantage at Rogers Place.
They tied it quickly with two milestone goals.
Juraj Slafkovsky centred the puck into the crease where Nick Suzuki was breaking hard to the net. It went off his skate and in.
For Suzuki, it was the 27th goal of his season to set a new career high for a campaign.
A short time after that, it Kaiden Guhle streaked down the left side to count.
That was a huge goal for Guhle as well because he calls Edmonton home.
He finished his junior career with the Oil Kings where he led them to a WHL title and won the league’s MVP award in the playoffs.
Some home cooking for Guhle before the game, some family and friends in attendance, and probably some money on the board, all acted as incentives for a kid who does not need any to pour his heart into every game.
Guhle and Matheson did a strong job shutting down Connor McDavid.
The better analytics were turned in by the number one line, though, as against a terrific club, once again, Suzuki’s line was remarkably strong.
It was a 73 share of Goals Expected which is outstanding considering the opposition.
Montreal may not have any support scoring, but they have something excellent brewing from the top-three.
