Canadiens start the new year with a 4 3 win over Stars in Dallas

Article content The first game of the New Year did not get off to a good start for the Canadiens. The Stars scored only 11 seconds into Tuesday night’s game in Dallas after a bad giveaway by Canadiens defenceman Mike Matheson. But if there’s one thing this rebuilding Canadiens team has shown with Martin St.

Louis as head coach it’s that they don’t give up. The Canadiens fought back and beat the Stars 4 3 to end a three game losing streak. The Canadiens went ahead 4 1 before barely hanging on for the victory after the Stars scored twice in the last four minutes of the third period with goalie Scott Wedgewood on the bench for an extra attacker.

Nick Suzuki, Kaiden Guhle, Jordan Harris and Cole Caufield scored for the Canadiens, who improved their record to 16 16 5. Jamie Benn, Wyatt Johnston and Jason Robertson scored for the Stars, who fell to 22 10 4. Samuel Montembeault, making back to back starts for the fifth time this season, made 30 saves as the Stars outshot the Canadiens 33 18, improving his record to 8 5 3 with a 2.94 goals against average and a .903 save percentage.

This ended a stretch of seven straight road games for the Canadiens and they finish with a 3 3 1 record. After Tuesday’s morning skate, St. Louis told reporters in Dallas that before starting this stretch of games, finishing it with a .500 record would have been considered a success. When asked what his goals are for 2024, St.

Louis said it was to keep the passion for what the team is trying to do and the mindset to continue evolving and improving. He added that if that passion drops, attitude drops with it. “We know we’re on a good path and it’s to continue with our attitude,” St. Louis said. Caufield, who celebrated his 23rd birthday on Tuesday, was asked by reporters after the morning skate if he can still feel St.

Louis’s passion. “Oh, yeah,” Caufield said with a smile. “Every day. “I think as a group we’re coming and we’re knocking on the door,” Caufield added. “It’s close. We can see it. That’s kind of what’s driving us right now.” Suzuki’s goal at 4:14 of the first period was his second in two games and his team leading 12th of the season to tie the score 1 1.

The captain has four goals in the last six games and he also picked up an assist in this game, giving him 12 22 34 totals in 37 games. Juraj Slafkovsky picked up an assist on Suzuki’s goal, giving the 19 year old No. 1 pick at the 2022 NHL Draft 2 5 7 totals in the last eight games and 4 10 14 totals for the season..

Guhle put the Canadiens up 2 1 at 9:46 of the first period with his third goal of the season and Harris made it 3 1 at 6:54 of the second period with his first goal of the season. With those two goals, the Canadiens now have 30 goals from their defencemen this season. Caufield scored for the third straight game at 6:45 of the third period on a power play.

It was his 11th goal of the season, putting him on pace now to finish the season with 24. At that point it looked like the game was over — but far from it. Johnston scored at 16:12 and Robertson scored at 18:00 while goalie Wedgewood watched from the Dallas bench. The Stars came very close to tying the score in the final seconds, but Montembeault saved the victory.

Josh Anderson left for the Canadiens’ locker room midway through the third period with what appeared to be a lower body injury and didn’t return. Early in the period, Anderson was bleeding after taking a high stick to the face from Benn, who received a four minute penalty. “It’s kind of a fresh start,” Guhle told reporters in Dallas after the morning skate about the first game of 2024.

“We didn’t finish the way we wanted the last year (a 4 3 loss to the Lightning in Tampa on New Year’s Eve). Just sticking with it and keeping that same passion, same fight that we have. I think we’re close. We’re playing good hockey. I don’t think the games that we’ve lost have been bad games at all.

I think there’s a lot of good things that can come from those. So stay on the right track … it would really nice to get a win tonight to (start) 2024 and head back home.” With the win, the Canadiens now have a 9 7 3 record on the road and are 7 9 2 at home. When asked about St. Louis and his passion after the morning skate, Guhle said: “He’s a passionate guy.

I think we’re all passionate in here. We like playing in front of him and he definitely can get the group going if maybe we’re a little bit down. But I don’t think we are. I think we’re feeling good about our game. The last few games were just kind of unfortunate plays and maybe execution. Little things that we got to clean up, but we’re close.

I think we’re playing really well.” They certainly did after giving up the early goal against the Stars. The Canadiens were flying back to Montreal after the game, scheduled to arrive at 3:15 a.m. They will be back in action Thursday when the Buffalo Sabres visit the Bell Centre (7 p.m., TSN2, RDS, TSN 690 Radio, 98.5 FM).

scowan@postmedia.com twitter.com/StuCowan1.