Carey Price #31 of the Montreal Canadiens allows a goal to Alec Martinez (not pictured) of the Vegas Golden Knights during the second period in Game One of the Stanley Cup Semifinals during the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs at T-Mobile Arena on June 14, 2021 in Las Vegas, Nevada.Ethan Miller/Getty Images
The Montreal Canadiens lost for the first time in eight games on Monday night and now face an uphill battle in their Stanley Cup semi-final against the Golden Knights.
Vegas got goals from defencemen Shea Theodore, Alec Martinez and Nick Holden and another from centre Mattias Janmark in the 4-1 victory in the first game of the best-of-seven series before Wayne Newton and a sellout crowd of more than 18,000 spectators at T-Mobile Arena. Game 2 will be played on Wednesday night, again in the desert.
Montreal had not trailed nor suffered a defeat since Game 5 of its first-round series with the Toronto Maple Leafs but fell behind in the first period when Theodore knuckled a slap shot into the corner of the net past Carey Price. Martinez rifled home another one-timer early in the second when Price committed to stopping a shot in the slot by Theodore. Instead, the latter snapped a crisp pass to Martinez, who found the mark from the right side of the wide-open net.
That stood up as the game-winner.
“I was going to shoot it, but [Alec] was yelling at me pretty good,” Theodore said. “He was wide open too, so that helped.”
Rookie Cole Caufield scored his first goal of the postseason on a power play with 7:55 left in the second to cut the Canadiens’ deficit to 2-1, but Janmark deflected in a shot by Alex Tuch only 53 seconds later so Vegas regained a two-goal advantage. The final goal by Holden came with 9:54 remaining in the third period.
Vegas got seven points from its defensive corps and did its best to distract Price with traffic in front of him for most of the night.
“It’s playoff hockey,” Price said. “They are a big-body team, and they have been here before.”
The victory was the fifth in a row for the Golden Knights, who won a hard-fought seven-game series in the first round over the Minnesota Wild and then dispatched with the Colorado Avalanche in six in the second. Vegas is playing in the semi-finals for the third time since its inaugural season in 2017-18. It lost in the Stanley Cup final in 2018 and the Western Conference final last year.
Montreal was the last-ranked team among the 16 to reach the playoffs but stormed back after losing three of the first four games to Toronto and then swept the Winnipeg Jets in the second round. The Canadiens were 5-1 on the road this postseason before Monday’s contest, but were worn down by the Golden Knights on a blazing Nevada night. It was 42 degrees when the puck was dropped.
The game was the Canadiens’ first in the United States since March 7, 2020, when they played at the Florida Panthers, and first with more than 2,500 fans in attendance since March 10, 2020, when they played host to the Nashville Predators before 21,021 at Montreal’s Bell Centre. Due to divisional realignments, the last time they had played Vegas was Jan. 18, 2020.
Montreal is in the third round of the playoffs for the first time since 2014 and now has its work cut out. Teams that lose Game 1 in best-of-seven series go on to lose 69 per cent of the time.
Marc-André Fleury recorded 28 saves in the net for Vegas. The 36-year-old is the league’s active leader in playoff wins with 90 and games played with 159. He won Stanley Cups with Pittsburgh in 2009, 2016 and 2017 before he was exposed in the expansion draft.
He received a standing ovation as he turned away desperate late attempts by the Canadiens and fans chanted his name in the final minute.
“I tried to do my job and tried to keep the score close and got lucky here and there,” Fleury said.
Price, who carried the Canadiens on his back over the first two rounds, made some spectacular saves as he stopped 26 of 30 shots. On his best of the game, he reached above his head as he fell face-first onto the ice to take away an all-but-certain goal by Mark Stone.
“To me I don’t feel like I’m playing against Carey,” Fleury said. “I’ve got to worry about the shooters and the guys trying to score on me.”
The Canadiens looked anything but intimidated by their highly favoured opponent at the start. They dominated the action for chunks of the first period.
Fleury was forced to make a save on Brendan Gallagher on a goal-mouth scramble just 58 seconds into the game, then Alex Romanov, a 21-year-old rookie playing in place of the injured Jeff Petry, sent Vegas defenceman Alex Pietrangelo reeling with a hard check.
As the period went on, Fleury stopped Gallagher in the crease again, stopped Caufield on a wrist shot from 13 feet, then he wielded his blocker to thwart Josh Anderson from in close.
Despite being outplayed, the Golden Knights got on the board first when Theodore beat Price with 10:45 remaining. The shot from 59 feet out was the first goal of the playoffs for the Vegas defenceman after six assists in the 13 previous postseason games.
“It was a great start,” Price said. “We came out firing. They grabbed the momentum in the second, but we showed in the first that we can play with them.”
The Canadiens were called for five penalties, which set them back. It also limited the time that Caufield, who showed a flair for the dramatic when he was called up at the end of the regular season, was on the ice.
His parents leaped to their feet to celebrate his first playoff goal. They had been unable to see him play until now due to restrictions caused by COVID-19.
“It was special to have them at the game, and even just to be in the same country as them,” Caufield said. “It was a special feeling to score, but it was not the result we wanted.”
With files from Dylan Earis
Marty Klinkenberg