Charlie Lindgren earned his first NHL shutout Sunday when he made 38 saves to backstop the Montreal Canadiens to a 2-0 win over the Blackhawks in Chicago.
“I just wanted to do my best job preparing like I’m going to play and obviously got the call tonight, and I felt ready for it right from the beginning,” Lindgren said. “I felt like I got that first save and really settled in. It was a very fun game.”
Jonathan Drouin scored what was the game-winner early in the final frame.
“This year I’m just focused on being consistent in the way I play,” Drouin said. “I think you look at all the top players that sometimes go through droughts. What are you doing other than that? Are you doing something good or are you doing something bad? Definitely nice to snap that one though.”
Joe Morrow extended the lead to 2-0 in the eight minute of the third.
“It was a very strong win, and it all started with [Lindgren],” the Canadiens’ Max Pacioretty said. “That save in the first period, I think the backdoor save, two or three in the second. When he’s making saves like that, when we see that, it helps us put our foot on the gas. … He played phenomenal and I think it trickled down the lineup.”
The Habs improved 6-8-1 with the win.
“This was our third game in four nights, you know our team’s going to be tired physically and so we had to be as sharp as we could mentally, really minimize our mistakes,” Canadiens coach Claude Julien said. “But at the same time it was good to have a goaltender that was fresh and ready to go. We needed a solid performance from Charlie and he gave us that.”
[WATCH: All Canadiens vs. Blackhawks highlights]
Corey Crawford‘s shutout streak was ended at 173:09 with the Drouin goal and made 33 saves in the loss.
“We have to find a way to generate some offense. We scored the winning goals the last two games with our power play. Tonight we had a couple of looks that were OK but the offense is dry right now,” Blackhawks head coach Joel Quenneville said after the loss.
The loss dropped the Hawks to 7-6-2.
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