In Montreal, Jacob Markstrom made 37 saves and the visiting Calgary Flames handed the Canadiens their first regulation loss of the season, 2-0, on Saturday night.
“When shots were coming, I was seeing the puck,” Markstrom said. “And if I didn’t see the puck it means our guys were blocking shots and clearing rebounds, so it made my job a heck of a lot easier. So that was a big win for us to come back here and win after some games where we weren’t happy and satisfied with the results.”
Johnny Gaudreau scored off the power-play in the early minutes of the opening frame for a 1-0 lead to the Flames.
“When your goalie plays like that you’re not going to lose ever,” the Flames’ Mark Giordano said. “So it was a great moment for him to step in. Obviously we’ve been on a little bit of a slide but I thought the guys were blocking shots today, we were invested emotionally and you know he was our backbone there. So it was a great team win.”
Mikael Backlund added a goal in the third period to give Markstrom some breathing room.
“It was a pretty hard-fought game on both sides,” Canadiens’ Brendan Gallagher said. “I mean, they came out strong, it just comes down to putting the puck in. Our goaltender gave us a great chance tonight. He played awesome again and so I think he deserved a little bit better.”
Jake Allen made 31 saves in the loss.
“Obviously we don’t want that spreading but he’s tested negative for Covid testing,” Montreal head coach Claude Julien said. “He’ll be tested again tomorrow but with everything that’s going on right now it was cautionary measures by our medical staff to send him home.”
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