(Montreal) The Canadiens finally came out of their torpor on Thursday night at the Bell Centre.
Joel Armia scored three goals, Mike Matheson had three assists and the Montreal Hockey Club defeated the Washington Capitals 6-2.
The Canadiens celebrated the 2SLGBTQIA community and inclusion. Russian player Denis Gurianov did not participate in the warm-up, during which the Habs players wore special jerseys for the occasion.
The team cited security reasons for Gurianov’s decision. A Russian law prohibits LGBTQ “propaganda” in the arts, advertisements and media.
The Canadiens players made sure to give their fans a chance to celebrate.
They ended a four-game losing streak, the last two of which came by shutout.
Rafaël Harvey-Pinard was back in action after missing two games with an accumulation of minor injuries. His presence in the lineup seemed to create a spark, although he only had an assist on goal in an empty-net from Armia late in the game.
Nick Suzuki had a goal and an assist, while Brendan Gallagher and Mike Hoffman also scored for the Canadian (31-42-6). Samuel Montembeault stopped 24 shots in his 100th career NHL outing.
Dylan Strome and Nicklas Backstrom scored for the Capitals (34-35-9), who suffered a fifth straight loss (0-4-1). Darcy Kuemper stopped 26 shots.
Sean Farrell was left out to make room for Harvey-Pinard in the Canadiens’ lineup.
The Capitals were without forward Anthony Mantha and had to play to just 17 skaters, rather than 18.
The Canadiens will visit the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday.
The awakening of the attack
The Capitals had the advantage early in the game and took the lead after 5:30 of play. Strome surprised Montembeault with a two-on-two attack.
The Canadian came close to replying on the power play, but Hoffman reached the post.
The trio of Suzuki, Harvey-Pinard and Armia was the most threatening for the Canadian in the first period and he continued his momentum in the second period.
Armia saw his shot miss the mark after deflecting off Nick Jensen’s stick early in the period.
Suzuki then bumped into Kuemper before giving heavily against the boards.
The Habs captain had his revenge on the Capitals goaltender moments later, tying the shorthanded tie at 3:42. He managed a nice fake before pushing the disc into the opening.
Harvey-Pinard hit the post when the Canadian went back to being shorthanded a few minutes later. However, Armia eluded Kuemper’s vigilance before the end of the penalty on Joel Edmundson, giving the Habs a 2-1 lead at 7:52.
Gallagher widened the gap at 9:23. Jonathan Drouin joined him in net after a turnover caused when Nic Dowd’s pass to Alexander Alexeyev hit the referee in the corner of Capitals territory.
Hoffman hit the post again moments later. Then Armia came back at 11:15, again on a pass from Matheson. This time thanks to a powerful one-timer shot.
Montembeault closed the door to the Capitals. He stopped Tom Wilson on a breakaway when the visitors were outnumbered.
The third period was pretty quiet, except when Gallagher slammed into Kuemper after he lost his balance on the breakaway. A brief melee broke out.
Backstrom then cut the deficit to two with 5:33 to go, on the ensuing power play and when Kuemper was replaced by an extra forward.
Montembeault closed the door thereafter. Armia completed his hat trick with 3:02 to play, shooting into an empty net. Hoffman turned the iron in the wound by surprising Kuemper with 17.7 seconds left on the clock.
