In Montreal, Thatcher Demko made 33 saves to help the Vancouver Canucks to a 2-1 win over the Canadiens on Monday night.
“We’ve been playing a better game, I thought, just not getting the results,” Demko said. “So it’s nice to see one go tonight.”
It was a battle of two teams searching for a winning streak.
“We had some really good seasons, we had some tough seasons around here,” Montreal’s Brendan Gallagher said. “We always followed up those tough seasons with solutions because he was able to sit there and gather our opinions. And he really trusted us, really listened to us. He was just someone you could really count on.”
The Canucks improved to 7-14-1.
Ryan Poehling hit for the Habs only goal of the game.
Montreal dropped to 6-16-2.
It was Montreal’s first game since general manager Marc Bergevin was fired.
“I actually just found out about that after the game,” Demko said. “You hear some crazy things coming out of the media lately about us, so I’ve been kind of tuning it out, so I missed that one. I didn’t really know about it.”
Elias Pettersson scored for Vancouver in the opening frame, the goal came off the power play for a 1-0 lead.
“I like playing here, especially the fans,” Pettersson said. “It’s always a loud rink playing here. You’ve got a great fan base so it’s always fun to play here. And I didn’t know that fact, so it’s good to break that.”
Conor Garland hit for the game-winner in the third period. Garland was left alone in the low slot and chipped the puck in for the goal.
Jake Allen made 40 saves to keep the Canadiens competitive.
“I was surprised (by the Bergevin firing) but obviously when we had a start like we did this year, you know, things [have] got to change,” the Canadiens’ Josh Anderson said. “It could be him, it could be players, and obviously they thought that they needed a little change-up in the organization.”
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