MONTREAL — Finishing off a grueling five-city road trip against a rebounding squad full of energy wasn’t the easiest way for Philipp Grubauer and the Kraken to end a weeklong winless stretch.
Despite languishing in the NHL’s basement, the Montreal Canadiens have been a changed club under new coach Martin St. Louis the past dozen games and showed why for much of this Saturday night affair. But Grubauer stood tall in his net when it mattered and the Kraken, who bent without breaking completely, squeaked out a 4-3 victory via a shootout on a night they were out-skated and beaten to loose pucks much of the way by a more energized-looking team.
Grubauer made a couple of tough glove saves in overtime to keep the Kraken alive, the biggest off Ben Chiarot from point-blank range with nobody between them.
“From there, it’s just like guessing because he was so close,” Grubauer said with a laugh. “He comes in at, like, the hashmarks, so it was a reaction save for sure.”
There’d be plenty more saves to come for Grubauer in three standard shootout rounds and then four more of the sudden death variety before Marcus Johansson scored on the backhand to win it for the Kraken. The victory snapped a stretch of four consecutive Kraken losses on the trip and was only their second win in the past 13 games.
Deserved results haven’t always gone the way of either of these teams, perhaps explaining why they remain close to one another at the bottom of the standings. The Kraken moved five points ahead of Montreal and two up on Arizona in the battle to stay out of last place overall in the league, but have played three more games than both.
It seemed the Kraken would prevail much more easily when a go-ahead Ryan Donato goal in the first period and then a Jared McCann power-play marker late in the second put their team ahead by two heading into the final frame.
But Canadiens defenseman Alexander Romanov cut the lead to 3-2 by scoring on a slapper from the left point just 1:04 into the third as Montreal pressured the Kraken relentlessly and had Grubauer flopping all around his crease. Then, with just 2:12 to play in regulation, Adam Larsson tried to intercept a cross-ice pass by Nick Suzuki in front of his net and inadvertently tipped the puck past Grubauer for the tying goal.
Up until that turn of events, the Kraken had puck-luck mostly bouncing their way.
Yanni Gourde, playing in front of family and friends in his home province, was credited with opening the scoring while shorthanded in the first period after Montreal defenseman Chris Wideman inadvertently backhanded the puck into his own net. The Kraken nearly made it 2-0 killing that same penalty, only to have a Mason Appleton goal overturned by an offside call for the second straight game.
Not surprisingly, the video review decision was a momentum-turner for the Canadiens, who kept pressing and tied it later in the period when Michael Pezzetta got off a quick snapper that beat Grubauer over his glove.
On Donato’s go-ahead goal to make it 2-1, an initial shot from close-in by Marcus Johansson had missed the net completely. But the puck took a hard hop off the end boards right out front to Donato, who buried it in the net before Montreal goalie Sam Motembeault could react and get over.
The Canadiens had been 7-5-0 since St. Louis took over as coach from the fired Dominique Ducharme, consistently playing the type of fast-paced game that gave the Kraken fits at times in this one. Montreal nearly won the game early in overtime, with Ben Chiarot getting in alone and Grubauer making a point-blank save with his glove.
But given the way this season has gone, the Kraken will gladly take two points over style points.
