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Utah Mammoth at Montreal Canadiens

Thu Nov 57:00 PM ETESPN+Montreal, QC
By JR·3 min read
Mammoth(10-6-0)
Canadiens(9-3-3)
Thursday 11/057:00 PM

TLDR: Montreal held Winnipeg to nothing for 57 minutes at the Bell Centre on Tuesday, then lost 5-4 in overtime. Thursday it gets Utah, which comes in having already won in Toronto, and the Canadiens are still missing their captain, their top defenceman and their prized rookie winger.

FRI 11/06, 7:00 PMESPN+
Mammoth
(10-6-0)
WLWLW
Canadiens
(9-3-3)
LWWWW

Utah visits the Bell Centre on Thursday after a 3-2 win in Toronto, while Montreal is 2 days removed from blowing a 4-0 third-period lead to Winnipeg and losing in overtime. The Canadiens have leaned on rookie goalie Jacob Fowler while missing Nick Suzuki, Ivan Demidov, Kirby Dach and now Mike Matheson, and their goals-against has climbed since Matheson went out. Utah plays its 4th straight road game with its own blue line thinned by the loss of John Marino and Maveric Lamoureux, which makes this a test of which shorthanded defence holds up.

Utah Mammoth
  • Won in Toronto with a goal in every period
  • Power play delivered Schmaltz's late winner
  • Cossa made 27 saves in the last start
  • Marino and Lamoureux both out of the defence
  • 4th straight road game to close the trip
  • Allowed 3 or more goals in 4 of last 5
Montreal Canadiens
  • Fowler entered Tuesday with a .932 save percentage and 2 shutouts
  • Led Winnipeg 4-0 for 57 minutes on Tuesday
  • Allowed 3 goals total on the recent road trip

Tuesday's loss is the story in Montreal. The Canadiens were up 4-0 late in the 3rd, then gave up 4 goals in 2:06, the last a power-play equalizer with 33 seconds left, and Dylan Samberg won it in overtime. That ended a 4-game winning streak. They have to turn around and play again 2 nights later. The loss doesn't erase what this group did on the road in late October, when it beat Winnipeg 2-1, blanked St. Louis 2-0 and handled Dallas 5-2. But it does raise the obvious question: how much of that run was the goaltending covering for a lineup that keeps getting thinner?

For most of it, the goaltending was Jacob Fowler. He went into Tuesday 7-1 with a 1.84 GAA, a .932 save percentage and 2 shutouts in 8 games, with Sam Montembeault on injured reserve and called day-to-day. Fowler carried the load while Nick Suzuki was out with a hand injury from a blocked shot against San Jose on Oct. 20. Suzuki had 5 goals and 12 points in 9 games when he went down, and the injury ended a 546-game ironman streak. Kirby Dach missed Tuesday with an illness, and Ivan Demidov is still in a walking boot and hasn't skated since playing in only 2 games. The 2-to-4-week timeline on Suzuki puts Thursday inside the window, but nobody has said he's cleared, so expect a patched-up Montreal lineup until the team says otherwise.

Utah won't feel sorry for anyone. The Mammoth won 3-2 at Scotiabank Arena on Tuesday with a goal in each period, and Nick Schmaltz scored the winner on the power play with 6:48 left. Dylan Guenther and Andrew Peeke had the other 2, and Sebastian Cossa made 27 saves. They did it without Kailer Yamamoto, Michael Carcone, John Marino and Maveric Lamoureux. It also put them 2-0 against the Leafs this season, and they'll wear the new Mountain Blue 'Hometown Remix' sweater at the Bell Centre.

Utah Mammoth
(10-6-0)
11/04W@Maple Leafs3-2
11/01L@Flyers3-6
10/29W@Penguins4-3
10/28LvsWild1-3
10/25WvsLightning5-4
Montreal Canadiens
(9-3-3)
11/04LvsJets4-5
10/31WvsPenguins5-4
10/30W@Stars5-2
10/28W@Blues2-0
10/25W@Jets2-1

Utah's form swings. As of Wednesday the Mammoth have alternated wins and losses over their last 5, including a 6-3 loss in Philadelphia where the 2nd period got away from them. Thursday is their 4th straight road game, after Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Toronto. They've given up 3 or more goals in 4 of those last 5, and at 10-6-0 they don't have a single loser point. When they lose, they lose in regulation.

The number to watch on Montreal's side is goals against. Mike Matheson went down with a lower-body injury at the end of October and is expected to miss about 2 weeks. Since then the Canadiens have allowed 4 to Pittsburgh and 5 to Winnipeg in back-to-back home games. They won the first one 5-4 and lost the second, and neither score looks much like the team that allowed 3 goals total across that 3-game road trip. Fowler can stop a lot, but he can't cover for a blue line that was missing its minutes-eater when the Jets pushed late.

So it's a thinned-out Montreal team trying to answer for a third-period collapse, against a Utah team that's won in 2 Canadian buildings this season and gets the Canadiens with Matheson and Suzuki both out. Puck drop is 7:00 PM ET Thursday at the Bell Centre. Keep an eye on Montreal's morning skate for Suzuki and Dach, and on Yamamoto's status for Utah.

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