Nick Suzuki has dented the scoresheet in each contest since being held without a point in the Montreal Canadiens’ season-opening game.
The Canadiens’ captain will carry a career-high 11-game points streak into Tuesday’s contest against the visiting Philadelphia Flyers.
Entering play on Monday with an NHL-best 16 assists, Suzuki set up a pair of goals in Montreal’s 4-3 overtime victory over the Ottawa Senators on Saturday.
Suzuki’s stretch pass found Cole Caufield to open the scoring on Saturday, allowing the latter to boost his team-leading goal total to 10 with his fifth in his last four games. The duo became the first set of Canadiens teammates since 1995-96 to both reach the 15-point mark within their first 12 games since Pierre Turgeon and Mark Recchi in 1995-96.
Juraj Slafkovsky, who is the third member of the top line, scored a power-play goal for the third straight game on Saturday.
Alex Newhook scored on a breakaway in the extra session, sending the Canadiens to their third win in a row overall. They also became the first team in NHL history to record five overtime wins through a club’s first 12 games of a season.
“It’s crazy how we just keep doing this and our star players step up for us every time,” Montreal defenseman Jayden Struble said, per the Montreal Gazette. “When we’re down it doesn’t feel like we’re down. It’s like: All right, someone’s going to score and send it to OT and then someone’s going to win it. It’s a crazy thing to be a part of right now.
“It’s very fun and I love the way that we’re playing.”
While struggling Sam Montembeault made 14 saves on Saturday, fellow goaltender Jakub Dobes likely will put his perfect record on the line against Philadelphia. Dobes is 6-0-0 with a 1.97 goals-against average and a .930 save percentage this season.
Dobes, however, was gashed for six goals on 30 shots in his lone career encounter with the Flyers in a 6-4 setback on March 27.
Philadelphia captain Sean Couturier and Matvei Michkov each collected two goals and an assist in that game.
The Flyers’ Tyson Foerster also tallied in that contest however he blocked a shot with his skate in Saturday’s 5-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs and sat out Sunday’s 2-1 setback to the Calgary Flames. He is expected to “miss a few games,” per head coach Rick Tocchet.
The fiery Tocchet also was none-too-pleased with Philadelphia’s two losses over the weekend, especially on the heels of a promising 5-1-0 stretch.
“You’ve got to keep pounding it, and we’ve got to find people who want to continue to do it,” Tocchet said. “We’ll find them. But it’s my job to get these guys to do it.
“It’s hard to win in this league. You want to play in April and May, you’ve got to play hard hockey. I think we’re finding easy ice. A lot of guys, even some of our best players, they want to play the easy ice and not the hard ice.”
New Flyers forward Trevor Zegras saw his four-game point streak (four goals, four assists) come to a halt on Saturday.
