The Montreal Canadiens will try to continue their push toward a playoff spot when they open a quick two-game road trip Tuesday in Salt Lake City against the Utah Hockey Club.
The Canadiens are coming off a 2-1 shootout loss to the Dallas Stars on Saturday, but a 9-2-1 mark in their last dozen outings has pushed them to within two points of the Eastern Conference’s second wild-card playoff spot entering Monday and in the heart of the cluster of teams jockeying for position.
Although his charges lost to the Stars in extra time and in a game in which they had a lead late in the second period, coach Martin St. Louis had no problem finding the positive considering it was against one of the NHL’s hottest clubs and one night after claiming a 3-2 overtime win over the Washington Capitals.
“I liked our game. We had no passengers. All the guys were involved,” St. Louis said of the loss to a Dallas team that entered the game on a six-game winning streak. “We played a mature game. On back-to-back nights, maybe we didn’t have our legs early, but we did enough to deserve two points. We just didn’t get them, but it’s a big point.”
Montreal has played four consecutive extra-time affairs.
Adding more hope for the trip is the return last game of key defenseman David Savard (who missed four games due to injury) and forward Patrik Laine.
Laine, out four games due to illness, scored on the power play, his ninth goal in 14 games this season and 399th career point.
“It’s always not fun to miss games so it was good to be back,” Laine said. “I didn’t feel awful and I felt I had a pretty decent game.”
Utah is back in action after surrendering a third-period lead in a 2-1 home loss to the New York Islanders on Saturday.
It is just the latest setback for the team which pulled within a single point of the Western Conference’s second wild-card position a week before Christmas, but has managed only two wins in its last 10 games (2-6-2).
“It was tough for us to create clean chances, and it was tough for them to create clean chances,” coach Andre Tourigny said of the loss. “They scored on one clean chance, and the other (goal), they went for the broken play. I think we had a few clean chances as well. We hit the post twice, and we could not bury our chances.”
Despite a solid road record, Utah continues to struggle in Salt Lake City. The team has a 6-9-4 record at the Delta Center and has lost two of three clashes to kick off a crucial seven-game homestand.
The big bugaboo is the struggling offense. Utah has been held to two or fewer goals in nine of 11 games, a situation made even worse with leading goal scorer Dylan Guenther sidelined indefinitely due to a lower-body injury.
“We had a lot of looks, but we have to be able to find more than one goal,” said forward Nick Schmaltz, who has scored in consecutive outings. “The last couple games, we haven’t generated a ton (of chances). I think we’ve had our looks, but we just haven’t capitalized on it.”
–Field Level Media
