HABS LOSE TO WILD

Blame the PK, not Kinkaid

Backup goaltending was a big problem for the Canadiens last season, but they can’t blame Keith Kinkaid for Sunday’s 4-3 loss to the Minnesota Wild.

The Canadiens should have been out of this game after the first period, when they were outshot 19-7, but they were only trailing 1-0 after 20 minutes on a power-play goal by Jason Zucker.

The Canadiens tied it up at 2:50 of the second period when Tomas Tatar scored on a power play and then took a 2-1 lead when Phillip Danault scored his first of two goals only 16 seconds later.

But in the end, the Wild stopped the Canadiens’ two-game win streak, getting goals from Zucker, Marcus Foligno, Brad Hunt (power play) and Zach Parise, who scored the winner at 12:54 of the third period. Shots were 33-33.

Kinkaid has an 0-1-1 record this season, including a 5-4 OT loss to the Buffalo Sabres. You want a backup goalie to give your team a chance to win and Kinkaid has done that in both of his starts after being signed to a one-year, US$1.75-million contract as a free agent to replace Antti Niemi.

Unfortunately, Kinkaid didn’t get much help on Sunday.

“The thing I’ve seen right from the get-go is that he’s even got better with practice time, working with Stéph (goalie coach Stéphane Waite),” Canadiens coach Claude Julien said about Kinkaid before the game. “I just find him a little bit more … I guess I don’t know what the term is in goaltending, but he’s a little more sound and square. So I think that’s really been good. In practices, I see a guy who since the start of the year to now is competing even harder in practices. So he’s got a really good compete level. Those things you hope always transpire to game situations. So we’ll get to see him in nets this afternoon and hopefully he gives us a win.”

After Tatar and Danault gave the Canadiens a 2-1 lead, the Wild tied it up 2-2 with only 15 seconds left in the second period when Canadiens defenceman Ben Chiarot, who had come out of the penalty box and couldn’t get off the ice, left Foligno all alone at the side of the net. The Canadiens were playing with three defencemen at the time.

There was nothing Kinkaid could do on that goal, but earlier in the period the goalie had Save of the Year candidate when he stacked the pads while sliding across the crease before making an acrobatic glove save on Zucker from close range.

Danault put the Habs up 3-2 at 3:22 of the third period when he went hard to the net and a rebound of a Brendan Gallagher shot bounced in off of him. Hunt tied it up at the 8:38 mark on the power play and then Parise scored the winner just over four minutes later.