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Dans les coulisses

Canadiens lose in overtime to Islanders

After an impressive 9-3 victory on Tuesday, the Canadiens visited the New York Islanders on Thursday night. The Canadiens had the chance to play spoilsport and prevent Patrick Roy’s team from picking up valuable points in this final playoff push.

Here’s the line-up for both teams.

If you like goals and offensive plays galore, you wouldn’t have liked the first period. Both teams played extremely calm hockey. So calm that after just over 10 minutes of play, a mere three shots had been fired at the goalkeepers.

The good news is that, despite the low number of shots that were directed at him, Samuel Montembeault showed some real promise in the first period.

Shooting few shots on the opposing net wasn’t a problem for the Canadian. Jordan Harris opened the scoring on the Habs’ fourth shot with a powerful slap shot that went just wide of Juraj Slafkovsky.

Slafkovsky came close to redirecting the shot, but Harris was credited with the goal.

After 20 minutes of quiet play, the Habs had a 1-0 lead.

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The second period didn’t offer much in the way of attack, except for some physical play! Brendan Gallagher and Jean-Gabriel Pageau even threw down the gloves.

Gallagher had to answer, having been suspended earlier this season for a blow to the head of Adam Pelech.

Although there weren’t many shots on goal in the first 40 minutes of the game, Juraj Slafkovsky came to Samuel Montembeault’s rescue. A fine defensive touch from the striker, who is very prolific these days.

Despite the best efforts of Montembeault and Slafkovsky, the Islanders finally tied the game with a shot from Pierre Engvall.

After two periods, it was tied 1-1.

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The third period finally gave us some more attacking action. The Canadians struck first with a goal that left Pierre Houde slightly confused.

Only Slafkovsky had realized the puck was in the net! It was Cole Caufield’s 25th goal of the season.

But the Islanders hit back moments later, as Casey Cizikas took advantage of the confusion in front of the Habs net to skate around it and tie it again.

In the end, both teams needed overtime to settle the debate.

Barely a minute into overtime, Kyle Palmieri beat Montembeault with a precise shot.

The Islanders win 3-2.

The Canadiens are back in action on Saturday night, when they visit the Senators in Ottawa.

Extension

– It could be.

– A heavy loss for the Islanders.

– The code is the code.

– Anything is possible with five goals in his last six games.

– Islanders keep their lead in the playoff race.