The Montreal Canadiens will look to continue their push for a playoff spot when they open a quick two-game road trip Tuesday in Salt Lake City against the Utah Hockey Club.
The Canadiens are coming off a 2-1 shootout loss to the Dallas Stars on Saturday, but a 9-2-1 record in their last dozen outings has left them two points out of the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference entering Monday and in the heart of the pack of teams jockeying for position.
Though his charges lost to the Stars in overtime and in a game they had a late second-half lead in, coach Martin St. Louis had no trouble finding the silver lining considering it was against one of the NHL’s most in-form clubs and a night after pulling off a 3-2 overtime win over the Washington Capitals.
«I liked our game. We didn’t have any passengers. All the guys were involved,» St. Louis said of the loss to a Dallas team that came into the game on a six-game winning streak. «We played a mature game. On back-to-back nights, maybe we didn’t have the legs early, but we did enough to deserve two points. We just didn’t get them, but it’s an important point.»
Montreal has played four straight overtime games.
Adding further hope to the trip is the late-game return of key defenseman David Savard (who missed four games due to injury) and forward Patrik Laine.
Laine, out for four games with an illness, scored on the power play, his ninth goal in 14 games this season and the 399th point of his career.
«It’s not always fun to miss games, so it was good to be back,» Laine said. «I didn’t feel bad and I thought I played a pretty decent game.»
Utah is back in action after giving up a third-period lead in a 2-1 home loss to the New York Islanders on Saturday.
It’s just the latest setback for a team that fell just one point out of the second Western Conference wild-card spot a week before Christmas but has only two wins in its last 10 games (2-6-2).
«We had a hard time creating clear chances, and they did too,» coach André Tourigny said of the loss. «They scored on one clear chance, and on the other (goal), they went for a wide play. I think we had some clear chances, too. We hit the post twice and couldn’t waste our chances.»
Despite its solid road record, Utah continues to struggle in Salt Lake City. The team is 6-9-4 at the Delta Center and has lost two of three games in the start of a crucial seven-game homestand.
The big problem is poor offense. Utah has scored two goals or fewer in nine of 11 games, a situation made even worse with leading scorer Dylan Guenther sidelined indefinitely with a lower-body injury.
«We had a lot of chances, but we have to be able to find more than one goal,» said forward Nick Schmaltz, who has scored in two straight games. «The last two games, we haven’t generated a lot (of chances). I think we’ve had our chances, but we haven’t taken advantage of them.»