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Stars defeat Canadiens 3-1 on secondary scoring

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The Montreal Canadiens (8-11-2) came into Tuesday night with four straight losses including one against the lowly Arizona Coyotes, and a more recent one in which they were steamrolled by the Toronto Maple Leafs in embarrassing fashion. The subplots on the ice were many–such as a homecoming of sorts for former Stars Jordie Benn and Antti Niemi, but the Canadiens were desperate for a win. The Dallas Stars were coming off a 6-3 victory against the Edmonton Oilers that they were hoping to build on. They caught a depleted Montreal team at a fortuitous time as all-world defenseman Shea Weber was a late scratch due to injury, and franchise goaltender Carey Price has been battling injuries all season.

Stars goaltender Ben Bishop will have to hold down the fort for the foreseeable future while backup Kari Lehtonen is out indefinitely for personal reasons. Bishop had himself a game (.967 SV%) when scoring was tough to find against Montreal. The scoring the Stars did manage was a welcome sight from secondary players.

The under-appreciated Benn brother gave the Stars an early Christmas gift early in the game with a holding penalty. The Stars put together a couple of scoring opportunities that tested Charlie Lindgren but they couldn’t make the 28th ranked penalty kill unit pay. The top line for the Canadiens is as talented as any trio in the league, and Ben Bishop had to make a save on a shot from Max Pacioretty that was set up by Alex Galchenyuk from behind the net.

Former Canadien Alexander Radulov did everything he could in the offensive zone to stay on the puck and set up Jamie Benn for a one-timer. Benn missed the net, but the Stars were awarded their second power play of the game as Tomas Plekanec was caught for hooking. The Stars had some good ideas–Dan Hamhuis set up Brett Ritchie for a point blank chance, and Bishop attempted a stretch pass to Jason Spezza that went offside–but it didn’t go much further than that. At the conclusion of the power play, John Klingberg had to back check and make a play to keep the Canadiens from scoring shorthanded.

Hamhuis made another impressive set-up pass to Mattias Janmark who shimmied his way in behind the Montreal defense, but was stonewalled by Lindgren. Jamie Benn came in hard on the forecheck and took his pasted his little brother into the glass. Jordie had a grin on his face and followed up the play with a check on Jamie. Radulov didn’t let it get out of hand and came in to break up the tussle. The period ended with Montreal on a 4-on-3 power play as Esa Lindell was penalized for interference.

The remainder of the power play time bled into the second period and led to some extended zone time for the Canadiens. Bishop eventually lost his stick, and the Stars had to buckle down to survive. Gemel Smith made a good play on a puck that was threatening to trickle in past Bishop. Stephen Johns had two really bad turnovers, the second of which led to a backhand attempt from in close to Bishop.

Ritchie committed a high sticking penalty, and the Stars would go on special teams again without two of their top penalty killers–the injured Marc Methot and Martin Hanzal. Montreal was able to get on the board first with a tapped in rebound by Brendan Gallagher crashing the net. Dallas tried to counter with their own offense and created a scrum in front of the net in which all of the Tyler Seguin line had chances.

The Stars’ newfound energy eventually caught up to the Canadiens. Devin Shore got the Stars on the board off a pass from Klingberg on the rush, Shore’s second goal of the season. Spezza was shuffled up to the Seguin line and was rewarded by going to the net and following up a rebound for his third of the season. To put a cherry on top, Dallas drew a penalty in the waning seconds of the period. It was a critical stretch that tilted the ice in Dallas’ favor heading into the second intermission.

The Stars had to deal with penalty issues of their own in the first few minutes of the third period. Ritchie went to the box at the tail end of the Stars’ power play, and Stephen Johns committed a tripping minor after they killed the initial penalty. Fortunately for Dallas, without Weber quarterbacking that unit the Canadiens’ power play wasn’t able to add to the Gallagher goal. The offense that Montreal did manage to generate was handled admirably by Bishop.

Radulov had a nice redirect on a shot attempt from the point late in the game, but Dallas had a measurable drought in scoring opportunities otherwise. Their strategy from there seemed to be outworking their opponent, playing mistake free, and dialing up the physicality. Radek Faksa and Greg Pateryn both threw vicious checks that got the crowd engaged in a low scoring game.

Johns redeemed himself for his struggles earlier in the game by saving the puck from going into the net while Bishop was recovering in the crease. It was a wild sequence of play as the puck was going all over the Stars’ zone, and Bishop couldn’t seem to track it. Montreal couldn’t get the bounce they were looking for, but went on another power play as Dallas had to commit a desperation penalty to stop play.

Having killed the penalty and surviving a couple of high danger shifts, the Stars set up a rush on the breakout with Radulov and Spezza. Spezza threw a last second pass across the ice for Radulov, who had a lane, but the puck only found the post. When the Canadiens emptied their net, Shore had an empty net goal opportunity to put the game away but missed. Seguin did the deed instead on a nice and easy backhander.

This was a crucial win to gain any kind of momentum heading into the dreaded Pepsi Center to take on the Colorado Avalanche tomorrow night.

The Goals

Second Period

12:04 Branden Gallagher scored on the power play by following up a rebound that Ben Bishop lost track of on the initial save. Stars 0, Canadiens 1

18:22 Devin Shore scored his second goal of the year on the rush. John Klingberg had the primary assist and the Stars tied the game. Stars 1, Canadiens 1

Devin Shore Goal

19:21 Jason Spezza got to the front of the net and scored on a put-back that was set up by Tyler Seguin. Stars 2, Canadiens 1

Third Period

19:33 Tyler Seguin scored into an empty net with a soft backhander to put the game away. Stars 3, Canadiens 1

Canadiens lineup
Max Pacioretty — Jonathan Drouin — Alex Galchenyuk
Paul Byron — Phillip Danault — Andrew Shaw
Charles Hudon — Tomas Plekanec — Brendan Gallagher
Nicolas Deslauriers — Jacob de la Rose — Torrey Mitchell

Karl Alzner — Jeff Petry
Jordie Benn — Joe Morrow
Victor Mete — Brandon Davidson

Charlie Lindgren
Antti Niemi

Scratched: Byron Froese, Brandon Davidson

Injured: Carey Price (lower-body), David Schlemko (hand), Shea Weber (lower body)

Stars lineup

Antoine Roussel — Jamie Benn — Alexander Radulov
Devin Shore — Tyler Seguin — Brett Ritchie
Mattias Janmark — Radek Faksa — Jason Spezza
Remi Elie — Gemel Smith — Tyler Pitlick

Esa Lindell — John Klingberg
Dan Hamhuis — Greg Pateryn
Jamie Oleksiak — Stephen Johns

Ben Bishop
Mike McKenna

Scratched: Julius Honka

Injured: Marc Methot (knee), Martin Hanzal (hand), Kari Lehtonen (personal)

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