Now, this should’ve stayed in Vegas
LAS VEGAS The Canadiens’ road trip from hell has gone from bad to worse. The high-powered Vegas Golden Knights ran up a 6-2 lead in the third period and held on for a 6-3 win over the Canadiens on Saturday at T-Mobile Arena. It was the Canadiens’ third consecutive loss on the four-game swing that ends Tuesday in Philadelphia and their current winless streak extended to five games (0-4-1). Short day for Niemi: Backup goaltender Antti Niemi made the start, but he was yanked at 9:51 of the first period after giving up three goals on six shots. Reilly Smith got things going with a powerplay goal at 2:16 after Victor Mete was sent off for hooking. Jonathan Marchessault won a faceoff against Byron Froese and he shot the puck back to Nate Schmidt at the point and he set up Smith in the faceoff circle to the left of Niemi. Charles Hudon got that one back with a strong drive to the net. He went around defenceman Brad Hunt and beat Marc-André Fleury at 4:32. Hunt made up for that miscue when he put Vegas on top for good at 6:50. He beat Niemi with a shot from the point through traffic. Niemi gave way to Carey Price after Tomas Nosek scored on a set-up from Erik Haula. The shot eluded Niemi on his glove side and coach Claude Julien decided he had seen enough.
Goal-scorer’s goal: Nikita Scherbak gave a demonstration of his skill level when he cut the Golden Knights’ lead to one goal at 11:47 of the first period. Scherbak went in alone on Fleury, pulled the goalie out of position and then reached back to put the puck behind him. It was Scherbak’s first goal of the season. He missed a chance for a second goal when he hit a post in the third period.
Please, not again: A familiar problem cropped up early in the second period when the Golden Knights scored goals 38 seconds apart to go ahead 5-2. It was the 15th time this season the Canadiens have allowed two goals inside of a minute. Ryan Carpenter scored at 3:07 and Smith scored his second goal of the game and 19th of the season at 3:46. Marchessault, the Golden Knights’ leading scorer, picked up his third assist of the game on Reilly’s second goal.
Schmidt ups the ante: Schmidt gave the Golden Knights a 6-2 lead when he beat Price on the glove side. Smith picked up an assist for his third point of the night. Powering up: The Canadiens did manage to score a power-play goal in the third period when Jonathan Drouin scored his ninth goal of the season on a set-up from Jeff Petry. The Canadiens went 1-for-2 on the power play, while Vegas scored once on three opportunities.
End of the road: The Canadiens will probably be happy to see the end of this road trip Tuesday when they play the Flyers in Philadelphia (7 p.m., TSN2, RDS, TSN Radio 690). Their latest loss leaves the Canadiens with an 8-19-1 record on the road and that’s the worst road record in the NHL. They return to the Bell Centre for games against the New York Rangers on Thursday and the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday.