In Montreal Sunday afternoon, the Edmonton Oilers’ Cam Talbot made 22 saves en route to his fifth shutout of the season, 1-0, over the Canadiens in a shootout.
“I put enough pressure on myself no matter what the score is so when it’s 0-0 there’s a little bit of added pressure but I know that if I just do my job and keep us in the game we’re going to have a good chance,” Talbot said.
Cam Talbot picked up 1-0 shutout of Habs Sunday – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
The Oilers only needed a shootout goal from Leon Draisaitl as Talbot stopped all three Canadiens shooters he faced.
“Honestly I thought it was a really good game,” said Edmonton captain Connor McDavid, who played his 100th NHL game. “Everyone had a lot of pace, the game was pretty quick, a lot of chances both ways, good goaltending and probably a few lucky bounces to keep it 0-0, but definitely happy to end up on the right side of that one.”
Al Montoya made 32 saves to record a shutout as well.
“That’s brutal,” Montoya said. “I mean, you go 0-0 through the whole game and to have it decided in a shootout, 1-0, it’s a tough way to lose. But at the same time, we got a big important point.”
The loss dropped Montreal to 30-16-8.
WATCH: All Oilers vs. Canadiens highlights
“He was unreal,” the Hans’ Shea Weber said of Montoya’s shutout. “Obviously he played one of his best games of the year for us tonight and that was a big reason why we were able to have a chance to win it.”
The Oilers now head into their bye week.
“We’ll take a couple of days as a staff. Everybody needs some rest. Personally I’ll get some time to see my family, which I’m looking forward to. I know a lot of the guys have some plans to go and get their rest,” Edmonton head coach Todd McLellan said of the bye. “This is the thing about the five-day thing: right now, everybody’s excited about it. We’re all happy that it exists. It’s the other 364 days of the year that I don’t agree with. I just don’t think it’s a smart thing. We can spread those days out during the year and give them rest when they really need it instead of playing nine games in 13 nights.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.