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It has been 12 years now for the reason that Habs final beat the Wild on the XCel Vitality Centre when P.Okay. Subban had a hat-trick.
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It has been a really very long time for the reason that Canadiens received a recreation in Minnesota.
How lengthy?
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Nicely, it was 10 days earlier than Juraj Slafkovsky — the No. 1 general choose by the Canadiens on the 2022 NHL Draft — celebrated his seventh birthday in Slovakia.
Jacques Martin was the top coach and P.Okay. Subban had a hat trick when the Canadiens beat the Wild 8-1 in Minnesota on March 20, 2011. Andrei Kostitsyn, Travis Moen, Tom Pyatt, Ryan White and James Wisniewski additionally scored that night time on the Xcel Vitality Heart. Goalie Alex Auld made 30 saves for the win, whereas former Canadiens goalie José Theodore allowed 5 targets within the Wild web earlier than being changed by Niklas Backstrom.
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So much has modified since then and not one of the Canadiens within the lineup that night time are nonetheless with the crew. However one factor hasn’t modified: the Canadiens can’t win in Minnesota.
They got here shut Thursday night time, however ended up dropping 4-3 to the Wild on a aim by Kirill Kaprizov with 5 seconds left in additional time.
It was the Canadiens’ tenth straight loss on the Xcel Vitality Centre. The Wild have a 16-1-0 file of their final 17 video games general in opposition to the Canadiens and have received seven straight, together with a 5-2 win on the Bell Centre on Oct. 17 this season.
Matt Boldy, Marco Rossi and Brock Faber scored for the Wild in regulation time Thursday night time, whereas the Canadiens bought targets from David Savard, Nick Suzuki and Slafkovsky. With Samuel Montembeault in aim, the Canadiens outshot the Wild 25-24
The Wild improved their file to 14-13-4 and they’re 9-3-0 since John Hynes changed Dean Evason as head coach on Nov. 27. The Canadiens at the moment are 14-13-5.
The Canadiens had been completely outplayed within the first interval, getting outshot 13-3 by the Wild and falling behind 2-0.
The Canadiens rebounded properly within the second interval, outshooting the Wild 12-4 and chopping Minnesota’s result in 2-1 when Savard scored his second aim of the season on the 8:17 mark. It was the twenty fifth aim this season by a Canadiens defenceman.
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Suzuki tied it up 2-2 together with his ninth aim of the season at 1:09 of the third interval on an influence play. Suzuki, who additionally assisted on Savard’s aim, leads the Canadiens in scoring with 9-19-28 totals and is now tied with Sean Monahan for the crew lead in targets.
Faber put the Wild up 3-2 on an influence play at 8:57 of the third interval, however as soon as once more the Canadiens didn’t hand over and Slafkovsky tied the rating together with his third aim of the season at 16:57, ending his stoop of 13 video games and not using a aim and giving him 3-7-10 totals this season.
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For the second straight recreation, Kaprizov scored in OT to provide the Wild a win after they beat the Bruins 4-3 Tuesday night time in Boston. Kaprizov additionally had two assists and the Russian — chosen by Minnesota within the fifth spherical (one hundred and thirty fifth general) of the 2015 NHL Draft — leads the Wild in scoring with 11-19-30 totals.
Rossi, an Austrian chosen ninth general by the Wild on the 2020 NHL Draft, had a Gordie Howe hat trick with a aim, two assists and a battle with Kaiden Guhle after the Canadiens defenceman had checked Kaprizov exhausting into the boards halfway via the second interval. Rossi is 5-foot-9 and 182 kilos, whereas Guhle is 6-foot-3 and 201 kilos.
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Ahead Emil Heineman made his NHL debut for the Canadiens after getting referred to as up from the AHL’s Laval Rocket final week, however solely had 5:56 of ice time. Canadiens GM Kent Hughes acquired Heineman from the Calgary Flames as a part of the Tyler Toffoli commerce in February 2022.
The Canadiens had been seeking to win three straight video games for the primary time this season, however got here up quick.
On the brilliant facet, the Canadiens have earned factors in 5 of their final six video games (3-1-2). They are going to be again in motion Friday in Chicago in opposition to the Blackhawks and Connor Bedard, the No. 1 general choose at this 12 months’s NHL Draft (8:30 p.m., TSN2, RDS, TSN 690 Radio, 98.5 FM). Bedard leads all NHL rookies in scoring with 12-16-28 totals, seven factors forward of the Wild’s Rossi, who has 11-10-21 totals.
“We knew it was going to be a bodily, emotional recreation,” the Canadiens’ Brendan Gallagher, who has now gone 18 video games and not using a aim, advised reporters in Minnesota after the sport. “They’re taking part in some actually good hockey proper now — we really feel like we’re as properly. We stored battling again and battling again. I assumed it will have been good to come back out of right here with two factors. We bought some extent in a constructing we haven’t had numerous success in. If we are able to discover a strategy to win the sport tomorrow we’re in a reasonably great spot going into the (Christmas) break.”
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Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis favored his crew’s angle.
“I don’t imply being optimistic … it’s not even that,” St. Louis advised reporters in Minnesota. “It’s simply an angle of we’re getting after it and we’re attempting to not be denied and management what we are able to and that’s what we’re doing and it’s actually enjoyable being on the bench.”
Fortunately for the Canadiens, they don’t need to play the Wild once more this season.
scowan@postmedia.com
twitter.com/StuCowan1
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