In the Habs Room: Sam Montembeault staking claim to be No. 1 goalie
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Made seven straight starts and won four of them, including a 3-2 OT win over the Leafs on Saturday night.
The Canadiens’ Rem Pitlick celebrates scoring his winning overtime goal against the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Bell Center in Montreal on Saturday, January 21, 2023. Photo by Minas Panagiotakis /Getty Images Content of article
Sam Montembeault said he was looking forward to a well-deserved Sunday off.
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Montembeault was a workhorse in goal, starting seven straight times and securing his claim to the No. 1 job in the absence of Jake Allen, who is out with an upper-body injury. He put in another strong performance on Saturday when he with 36 saves led the Canadiens to a 3-2 overtime win over the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Bell Center.
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Montembeault, who has won four of those seven starts, said he appreciates the confidence coach Martin St. Louis has shown in him.
“I’ve been pulled in the last couple of games and he trusted me to come back in,” said Montembeault. “I’m a bit tired right now, but tomorrow is free and we’ll go back to work on Monday. I can manage my workload fairly well. I didn’t run with the team yesterday and I worked with (goalkeeping coach Eric Raymond) on a couple of things.”
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Montembeault said he didn’t feel good in the first half but cleaned after that and made a saving stop midway through the third half against David Kampf.
“I have to be careful, I almost screwed it up,” said Montembeault. “The puck came (behind the net) and I thought I had time to play it, but it slowed down. They made the choice first but I came back and stretched to save.
Josh Anderson said St. Louis asked his team for a joint effort after losing Cole Caufield.
“It’s going to be hard to replace the energy with Cole; he brings it no matter what day it is,” said Anderson, who started Montreal’s comeback with his 14th goal. “But we have to keep the train going and everyone has to step up. When everyone is on board and can bring that level of competition and energy, good things will happen.”
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The Canadians had four players starting the new year at Laval and two of them – Rafaël Harvey-Pinard and Rem Pitlick – scored, with Pitlick scoring the overtime winner.
“It was a day of emotion and nerves and excitement and all those things,” said Pitlick, who took Caufield’s seat in the No. 1 row. “We’ve had some tough moments as a team, we’ve had some good moments as a team. There were so many ups and downs and it was good to end up on top.
“It felt good to be at the top,” added Pitlick. “Marty always talks about touches and it’s good to have extra touches.”
St. Louis praised the work of Laval coach Jean-François Houle, who has prepared NHL call-ups. He noted that there was “no chair” for Pitlick earlier in the season when the Canadians had a player surplus, but he sat quite Saturday.
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The Canadians physically dominated the Leafs, beating them 32-14 and blocking 23 shots to 14 for the Leafs. Anderson and Michael
Pezzetta registered six hits each, while David Savard blocked six shots.
The Canadiens went 0-for-4 on the five-shot power play, killing both of Toronto’s power plays. Montreal struggled in the faceoff circle, winning just 37 percent of the ties. Christian Dvorak was 8 for 14; Kirby Dach had a good night, winning three out of six faceoffs, but Nick Suzuki only won six out of 19.
The Canadiens will play their next two home games against Boston on Tuesday and the Red Wings on Thursday. They end the week in Ottawa on Saturday.
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