Sam Montembeault backstops Canadiens to 3-0 win over Oilers

Sam Montembeault stopped 30 shots as the Montreal Canadiens blanked Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers 3-0 on Monday.

Brendan Gallagher, Kaiden Guhle and Jake Evans — into an empty net — scored for Montreal (7-10-2), which matched its longest win streak of the season with a second consecutive victory.

Montembeault earned his second shutout of the campaign after a 48-save showing against Toronto in the season-opener.

Calvin Pickard made 23 saves for Edmonton (9-8-2). The Oilers lost their second in a row after falling 4-3 in overtime to Toronto on Saturday.

Gallagher deflected a hard pass from Mike Matheson into the top right corner to open the scoring with 31 seconds left in the second period.

The veteran forward nearly added another before the buzzer when Christian Dvorak found him in the slot, but Pickard robbed Gallagher with a pad save.

In the third period, Guhle beat Pickard short side after a pretty passing play between Cole Caufield and Jake Evans to make it 2-0 at 5:52.

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The Oilers pulled their goalie for an extra attacker with 4:52 remaining, only for Evans to score into the open cage with 3:08 left.

Takeaways

Canadiens: Montreal outshot the Oilers 11-9 in the third period. They also denied the Oilers on three power-play opportunities. Despite its stacked offence, Edmonton ranks in the bottom third of the league with the man-advantage this season.

Oilers: Edmonton was without defenceman Darnell Nurse. Head coach Kris Knoblauch announced earlier Monday that Nurse will be out five to 10 days. Nurse was injured by a hit to the head from Toronto forward Ryan Reaves on Saturday.

Key moment

Montembeault stood tall on a partial break from Jeff Skinner midway through the third, denying the backhand with a pad save to earn “Monty! Monty!” chants from the Bell Centre crowd.

Key stat

Edmonton forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins played in his 900th NHL game, all with the Oilers. Drafted first overall by the franchise in 2011, Nugent-Hopkins has 252 goals and 455 assists in that span.

Up next

Oilers: Wrap up a three-game Eastern Canada road trip against the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday.

Canadiens: Host the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 18, 2024.