Stars Shore up two points against Canadiens
DALLAS 4 MONTREAL 1
MONTREAL — A missed penalty shot by the Montreal’s Artturi Lehkonen deflated the Canadiens and turned the game on its head.
The Canadiens failed to capitalize on a few early chances, including that penalty shot, as the Dallas Stars defeated the Montreal Canadiens 4-1 on Tuesday for their first road victory of the season.
“We came out well, hit two posts and we had that penalty shot before they even scored,” said head coach Claude Julien. “That was our chance to play with the lead.
“It’s too bad because we worked hard. The effort was there but the result just wasn’t.”
After Montreal outshot Dallas 10-2 in a scoreless first period, Lehkonen was awarded a penalty shot early in the second period — the first of his career — when John Klingberg slashed him on a breakaway. Lehkonen moved in with speed and tried going fivehole but Ben Bishop made the easy save.
“I was just trying to read his body language,” said Bishop, who made 34 saves on the night. “I kind of had a sense that he was going to go five-hole. I just had a sense when he was coming down and what he was doing with the puck. I guess I was right that time.”
Esa Lindell made Montreal pay exactly a minute later when he scored on Dallas’ fourth shot of the game at 1:49 of the second. With Phillip Danault in the box for slashing, Devin Shore faked a shot then fed Lindell on an odd-man rush to give the visitors a 1-0 lead.
Later in the period, the Canadiens got caught on a line change and Dallas took advantage. Miro Heiskanen, the third overall draft pick in 2017, found himself unmarked near the blue line before beating Carey Price with a shot in the roof of the net at 7:24.
Shore led Dallas (6-5-0) with a goal and two assists for his first career three-point game.
Brendan Gallagher said Montreal’s (6-3-2) response to adversity in the second period was “not good enough.”
“They were the better team in the second,” he said. “They got the two-goal lead and we weren’t able to come back from that. You’re going to deal with little bits of adversity throughout the year and you can’t let yourself get frustrated. We have to do a better job of keeping our cool.”
Down 2-0, Gallagher scored his team-leading seventh of the season three minutes into the third period. Bishop stopped Tomas Tatar’s initial shot from the point but Gallagher was on the doorstep to knock in the rebound.
The 24-year-old Shore had five points in 10 games this season before adding three points on Tuesday.
“I tried to just skate and win as many battles as I could today,” said Shore. “In the game of hockey, sometimes you’re doing everything right and you can’t buy one. Sometimes you play like crap and you get points. You try not to look at your points as a measure of success.
“But it feels good.”
Flames 2, Sabres 1 (OT)
BUFFALO — Johnny Gaudreau’s magic touch has the Calgary Flames pointed back in the right direction.
One day after setting up the winning goal against the Toronto Maple Leafs, Gaudreau scored 2:40 into overtime to lead the Flames to a 2-1 comeback victory over the Buffalo Sabres.
He did it in style, too. After Matthew Tkachuk scored with 55.3 seconds in the third period, Gaudreau and Mark Giordano completed a pretty give-and-go that left Gaudreau alone with an open net.
“You enjoy it,” Calgary coach Bill Peters said of Gaudreau, his leading scorer. “I’ve been on the other side of it, obviously, I’ve seen him in the league long enough. I just like the way he goes about it. He’s a passionate player and gets rewarded for his effort.”
The Flames (7-5-1) have bounced back with impressive back-to-back wins on the road after a homestand to forget. Calgary lost 9-1 to Pittsburgh on Thursday before a 4-3 overtime loss to Washington on Saturday.
Wild 4, Oilers 3
EDMONTON — Eric Staal had a goal and two assists as the Minnesota Wild beat the Edmonton Oilers 4-3 on Tuesday.
Zach Parise, Jared Spurgeon and Mikael Granlund also scored for the Wild (7-3-2), who have won six of their last seven games.
Leon Draisaitl, Connor McDavid and Alex Chiasson responded for the Oilers (6-4-1), who saw a three-game winning streak halted.