Jacob Fowler was the big reason Montreal got that far. He made 19 saves on 20 shots for a .950 save percentage, which is the same steady goaltending that carried the Canadiens through Sam Montembeault's absence. The Habs had been giving up 4 or 5 a night at home and gave up 1 in regulation and overtime. Whatever loosened up in front of the home crowd over the last 3 games tightened right back up.
The trouble was at the other end. Montreal also managed just 1 goal through 65 minutes, against a Wild team still without Brock Faber and Jared Spurgeon on the blue line and Filip Gustavsson in net. The Canadiens came in with Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield carrying the scoring and a hot hand after Alex Newhook's 2-goal night in Toronto, and that got them 1 goal past a Minnesota net run by its backups.
The preview was built around Kirill Kaprizov, and he went quiet. He played 16:47 and finished with 0 goals and 0 assists, his first game this season without a point after scoring 16 goals with 15 assists before the week started. Minnesota won anyway. That's the encouraging part for the Wild: a road win in a building that has been rough on visitors, with their best player held off the scoresheet and 2 top defensemen in street clothes.
For Montreal, the point streak is now 11 games long, and that isn't nothing. The Canadiens played without Mike Matheson, Ivan Demidov and Montembeault and with Jake Evans' hand a question mark at center, and the defensive work fixed the home leakiness from the last week. The offense is the worry. A team that put up 4 or 5 in 4 of its previous 5 games scored once against a depleted Wild lineup and then lost in the skills competition.
The injury lists are long on both sides and they'll keep mattering. Faber skated with his teammates for the first time last week, and Gustavsson is travelling with the Wild on this 3-game trip, so Minnesota could get healthier soon. Matheson's reported 2-week timeline is about up, and Demidov had been skating on his own. Whichever team gets its regulars back first likely gets more out of a matchup like this one, which was decided by inches.
