Joel Armia’s short-handed goal late in the third period gave the Montreal Canadiens a 4-3 road win over the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday.
With the Sharks on a power play at 15:56 of the third period, Armia and Jake Evans broke out in the other direction with a two-on-one rush. The result was Armia’s second short-handed goal in as many games.
The victory snapped the Canadiens’ five-game (0-4-1) winless streak.
Alex Newhook had a goal and an assist, and Kirby Dach had two assists. Brendan Gallagher and Cole Caufield both scored with the extra attacker as part of a 2-for-4 night for Montreal’s power play.
Sam Montembeault stopped 27 of 30 shots, including a spectacular glove save on Macklin Celebrini. Montembeault’s save-of-the-year candidate came just over a minute before Armia’s goal.
Alexandar Georgiev stopped 16 of 20 shots for the Sharks, who are 1-8-0 in their last nine games.
Celebrini and Tyler Toffoli each had a goal and an assist on the power play, as San Jose was also 2-for-4 with the man advantage. Collin Graf scored the Sharks’ other goal for his first career NHL tally.
San Jose opened the scoring with a fantastic power-play goal 5:52 into the first period. A tremendous passing sequence in Montreal’s zone was finished by Celebrini’s shot at the side of the net.
Just 52 seconds after the first intermission, the Habs also displayed some nice passing on the power play to set up Caufield’s one-timer from the edge of the circle.
Newhook put Montreal ahead on another one-timer at 4:53 of the second period. A strong forecheck from the Canadiens kept the puck in San Jose’s end of the ice, and Newhook paid off the pressure with a big slap shot.
The Sharks equalized just under 10 minutes later on Graf’s milestone. Graf deposited a nice wrist shot from the circle for his first goal in 18 career NHL games.
The two clubs exchanged another pair of power-play goals in the third period, beginning with Gallagher’s tip-in at the 2:40 mark. Midway through the period, Celebrini threaded a pass to a streaking Toffoli for a breakaway goal.
