Shane Wright poetically scored his first National Hockey League goal against the Montreal Canadiens, but the Habs still beat the Kraken 4-2 in Seattle on Tuesday.
See the highlights in the main video above.
At the end of the first period, the fourth overall choice of the last draft was offered on a silver platter his first success in the Bettman circuit. Left unprotected in net, Wright was spotted by Oliver Bjorkstrand and beat Jake Allen with a sharp shot.
Moments earlier, another player scored his first NHL goal. Defender Johnathan Kovacevic beat Martin Jones from the blue line to open his scoring in his 27th game.
Jones in trouble
The evening did not go as planned for Jones. The 32-year-old had made as many saves as he conceded after two periods (four).
In the end, Martin St-Louis’ men only directed 16 shots on his cage. Allen was a lot busier, claiming the win after making 31 saves.
In the second twenty, the CH notably struck twice in seven small seconds. This is a team record for the fastest two goals scored in a road game.
Cole Caufield first hit the mark from his desk, spotted—you guessed it—by Nick Suzuki. Then, Christian Dvorak and Juraj Slafkovsky joined forces from the face-off to set up Josh Anderson’s seventh goal of the season.
Rem Pitlick also made the red light sparkle, at the very end of the middle period. His fine individual effort, however, was thwarted moments later. Jared McCann fired back with less than a second left on the clock.
The Canadian thus concluded his journey in the west with a harvest of five points out of a possible eight. The Los Angeles Kings will be at the Bell Center on Saturday.
SUMMARY
THIRD PERIOD
20:00 – Game over
15:08 – Jamie Oleksiak delays the game; minor punishment
01:09 – Jake Allen closes the door in front of Yanni Gourde and makes an important save
00:00 – Start of period
SECOND PERIOD
20:00 – End of period
19:59 – BUT SEA 4-2 Jared McCann provides the Kraken reply with just a tenth of a second left in the second period
18:40 – BUT MTL 4-1 Rem Pitlick brilliantly completes the staging initiated by Joel Edmundson and Jake Evans
Rem Pitlick scores his 1st goal this season –
17:51 – Mike Matheson obstructs Brandon Tanev; minor punishment
17:04 – Jaden Schwartz hooks Kirby Dach; minor punishment
08:22 – Vince Dunn delays the game; minor punishment
02:12 – BUT MTL 3-1 Josh Anderson doubles CH’s lead, just seven seconds after Cole Caufield’s success
Caufield and Anderson score back-to-back –
02:05 – BUT MTL 2-1 Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki combine (once again!) their efforts; number 22 reaches the plateau of 15 nets
00:00 – Start of period
FIRST PERIOD
20:00 – End of period
15:43 – Joel Edmundson trips Andre Burakovsky; minor punishment
15:30 – BUT SEA 1-1 What a story; Shane Wright scores his first Bettman goal against none other than the Montreal Canadiens
12:56 – BUT MTL 1-0 Johnathan Kovacevic scores his first career NHL goal, Mike Matheson and Kirby Dach get assists
11:43 – Shane Wright is still looking for a first goal in the Bettan circuit, Jake Allen deprives him in a good way
08:02 – Adam Larsson obstructs Jake Evans; minor punishment
00:00 – Start of the game
Pregame
The Habs revealed on Twitter a few hours before the game that Monahan had suffered a lower-body injury and that his condition would be reassessed when the team returned to Montreal. Number 91 was forced out of Monday’s game in the second half.
Savard, meanwhile, will be out for a second straight game, bothered by an upper body injury. His condition will be assessed on a daily basis.
Head coach Martin St-Louis announced at the same time that 11 attackers and seven defenders will be deployed for the game against the Kraken. This means that fullback Chris Wideman will return to the game after being left out in the last game.
The Habs lost a frenzied game at the Vancouver Canucks on Monday, falling 7-6 in overtime after squandering a four-goal lead. Having picked up three points on his journey, he will have his hands full against some surprising rivals. Indeed, the Kraken ranks second in the Pacific Division with 33 points.
Jake Allen will defend the Habs cage. Samuel Montembeault struggled in BC, giving up seven times on 32 shots. In addition, the Canadian must manage without Brendan Gallagher (lower body).
On the side of Seattle, the hope Shane Wright could well participate in the meeting; recalled from the American League, he trained with a unit supplemented by Yanni Gourde and Oliver Bjorkstrand on Tuesday. His likely presence would mean that the first and fourth picks of the most recent National League draft will cross swords, Juraj Slafkovsky playing for the Bleu-Blanc-Rouge.