The Montreal Canadiens scored an emotional 2-1 road victory Saturday night. The St. Louis Blues did the same.
So both teams should be riding a high when they meet in Montreal on Sunday night.
The Canadiens prevailed over the Toronto Maple Leafs 2-1 in a shootout Saturday to earn their fifth victory in their last seven games.
Cole Caufield scored Montreal’s regulation goal on a power play, extending his point streak (three goals, nine assists) to 10 games.
Rookie Ivan Demidov assisted on the goal, giving him eight points (two goals, six assists) in his last nine games. He has also drawn praise from his coach for his solid all-around play recently.
“He is not the biggest guy, but he plays much bigger,” Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said. “He’s using his body to win battles, to take care of the puck offensively. He’s able to extend plays or create opportunities because of it.
“If you go into battles with white gloves, you’re not going to do the next thing or generate something quick out of that. From what I’ve seen so far, he’s not just a perimeter player. He gets in there.”
Jakub Dobes played goal against the Leafs so Montreal will likely start Sam Montembeault against St. Louis.
The Blues snapped a two-game losing streak Saturday by defeating the Ottawa Senators with Joel Hofer making 41 saves. They will likely start Jordan Binnington in goal Sunday in the second half of back-to-back games.
They managed to kill off six of their seven penalties against the Senators while getting outshot 42-20 overall.
“Our PK was unbelievable,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said. “The sacrifice by everybody, but it starts with (Hofer) in the nets.”
The Blues were credited with 21 blocked shots.
“If you’re going to be (penalty killing), you have to be willing to block shots,” Montgomery said. “There’s a lot of guys with ice bags. When you have a lot of guys with ice bags, it’s usually because you’re a very determined group and you’ve played the game the right way. And we got rewarded for it.”
The Blues’ injury woes worsened with the loss of winger Jordan Kyrou to a left leg issue. Kyrou, who is tied for the Blues’ goal-scoring lead with eight this season, was hurt in the first period Saturday night while taking a hit along the wall.
“I think he’s day-to-day right now,” Montgomery said. “We’ll have more when we get a picture on (Kyrou). At the most, we think it’s a week to 10 days, but we’ve got to get an MRI when we get back just to make sure.”
St. Louis already has wingers Jimmy Snuggerud (wrist surgery), Nathan Walker (upper-body injury) and Alexey Toropchenko (leg burns in domestic accident) on the injured list. In their absence, Jake Neighbours scored twice in Ottawa for his first goals since Oct. 25.
Winger Matt Luff, a recent promotion from the AHL, could make his Blues debut filling in for Kyrou.
