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Canadiens vs. Red Wings recap: Mathieu Perreault ends the losing streak – Habs Eyes on the Prize

Published

3 years ago

October 24, 2021

It’s not often that the sixth game of the season is considered a must-win, but for the Montreal Canadiens who are mired in the worst franchise start in almost three decades, that is exactly the situation they were in. Five straight losses, with just four goals total to their name, had left them as the only NHL team without a point in the early season.

Dominique Ducharme threw the line blender on for last night’s game against the Detroit Red Wings, with Mathieu Perreault taking the third-line centre role between Tyler Toffoli and Cole Caufield. Jake Evans played between Finns Joel Armia and Artturi Lehkonen on the fourth line, while Mike Hoffman moved up to the top trio.

On defence, Sami Niku made his debut next to Brett Kulak after missing almost all of the pre-season with a concussion. Ben Chiarot took a spot next to Jeff Petry, while Alexander Romanov and David Savard formed a new-look third pair.

It was a bright start for the Canadiens who managed a ton of zone time and puck control while the Red Wings tried their best to keep the Habs to the outside. However, as has been the case all season, a penalty call shifted control of the game back into the opponent’s hands early on. Detroit did not need much time at all on its power play. Just seven seconds into Ben Chiarot’s tripping minor, Dylan Larkin snapped a shot off the post and in to make it a 1-0 game.

The Canadiens followed that up with a shift on which they failed to clear their lines on multiple occasions, giving the Wings another huge chance to add to their lead, but some strong stops from Jake Allen kept the deficit at just one.

Then Jonathan Drouin’s quick feet drew a tripping call, giving the Habs a chance to tie the game up on the power play. The power play unsurprisingly looked disjointed and failed to record a shot on goal. However, Chiarot was able to atone for his earlier penalty, thanks in part to a brilliant seam pass from Drouin. The Habs winger had a pair of options, to either dump the puck around or to feed a pass back toward the point. Drouin opted for the latter, hitting Chiarot in stride and the big defender wired his shot past Thomas Greiss to tie the game at one goal apiece.

After a disastrous first power play attempt, the Canadiens’ second one went much better. Hoffman missed the net with his first try, but was able to corral the rebound along the boards. He then circled outside the faceoff circle and uncorked a laser beam that Greiss never saw to put Montreal in the lead with their first two-goal game of the season.

They also earned a third straight power play afterward, but some fancy stickhandling from both Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki failed to find another goal on the advantage. Nevertheless, Montreal entered the first intermission with a one-goal lead.

The Habs came out firing on all cylinders to start the second period, with Hoffman leading a three-on-one rush and testing Greiss with another heavy wrist shot. It hinted at the offence that was about to come.

The goals started flying fast and furious, thanks to a bit of luck and Marc Staal’s skate. The second line rocketed into the zone after Kulak bumped the puck ahead to Drouin. He fed it back to Christian Dvorak, who dropped it off for Niku. The puck was returned to Dvorak, who tried one more pass, but it deflected off Staal’s heel and past Greiss.

The relentless neutral-zone pressure then resulted in a turnover by Carter Rowney, which Perreault picked up. The newly minted third-line centre had all kinds of space in the Detroit zone, and opted to call his own number as he snapped his first of the year past Greiss to make it a three-goal lead.

It wasn’t long before Perreault found the back of the net again, this time thanks to more pressure from the forwards. Caufield corralled a loose puck, walked into the slot, and fired a shot off Greiss’s glove. The rebound dropped right at Tyler Toffoli’s feet, and he slid a blind pass across the crease to Perreault, who easily chipped it home to push the Montreal lead to four.

The Habs did have to end the period killing another penalty, with Allen having to come up big to close out the second period and keep that four-goal lead intact.

Following the remaining Detroit power play time to open the third, the game became rather sloppy as both teams seemed content to just turn the puck over back and forth and run out the clock. However, after Givani Smith shoved Tyler Toffoli back into the Habs bench, Montreal went back to the power play.

With the obvious intention of getting him a hat trick, most of the man advantage was spent filtering pucks in to Perreault. Despite some solid looks from range, the Canadiens did not add to their lead.

The Wings decided an aggressive goalie pull was their best chance to get into the game with well over six minutes remaining. Chiarot collected a loose puck, launching it ahead but missing the net. Perreault was there to pick it up and deposit it into the empty net to complete his natural hat trick.

Jake Allen made a few big saves as the Red Wings pushed to try to find any kind of silver lining in the loss, but the Montreal goalie stood tall to finally earn the Habs their first win of the season.

Final Score: Montreal 6, Detroit 1

Next up for the team, is its annual trip to the American West Coast, starting with a trip to Seattle for the first ever meeting with the Kraken at 10 PM ET on Tuesday night.

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Canada’s Marina Stakusic falls in Guadalajara Open quarterfinals

Published

6 hours ago

September 13, 2024

Anne Joseph

GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic fell 6-4, 6-3 to Poland’s Magdalena Frech in the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open tennis tournament on Friday.

The 19-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., won 61 per cent of her first-serve points and broke on just one of her six opportunities.

Stakusic had upset top-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) on Thursday night to advance.

In the opening round, Stakusic defeated Slovakia’s Anna Karolína Schmiedlová 6-2, 6-4 on Tuesday.

The fifth-seeded Frech won 62 per cent of her first-serve points and converted on three of her nine break point opportunities.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.

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Kirk’s walk-off single in 11th inning lifts Blue Jays past Cardinals 4-3

Published

6 hours ago

September 13, 2024

Anne Joseph

TORONTO – Alejandro Kirk’s long single with the bases loaded provided the Toronto Blue Jays with a walk-off 4-3 win in the 11th inning of their series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday.

With the Cardinals outfield in, Kirk drove a shot off the base of the left-field wall to give the Blue Jays (70-78) their fourth win in 11 outings and halt the Cardinals’ (74-73) two-game win streak before 30,380 at Rogers Centre.

Kirk enjoyed a two-hit, two-RBI outing.

Erik Swanson (2-2) pitched a perfect 11th inning for the win, while Cardinals reliever Ryan Fernandez (1-5) took the loss.

Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman enjoyed a seven-inning, 104-pitch outing. He surrendered his two runs on nine hits and two walks and fanned only two Cardinals.

He gave way to reliever Genesis Cabrera, who gave up a one-out homer to Thomas Saggese, his first in 2024, that tied the game in the eighth.

The Cardinals started swiftly with four straight singles to open the game. But they exited the first inning with only two runs on an RBI single to centre from Nolan Arendao and a fielder’s choice from Saggese.

Gausman required 28 pitches to escape the first inning but settled down to allow his teammates to snatch the lead in the fourth.

He also deftly pitched out of threats from the visitors in the fifth, sixth and seventh thanks to some solid defence, including Will Wagner’s diving stop, which led to a double play to end the fifth inning.

George Springer led off with a walk and stole second base. He advanced to third on Nathan Lukes’s single and scored when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. knocked in his 95th run with a double off the left-field wall.

Lukes scored on a sacrifice fly to left field from Spencer Horwitz. Guerrero touched home on Kirk’s two-out single to right.

In the ninth, Guerrero made a critical diving catch on an Arenado grounder to throw out the Cardinals’ infielder, with reliever Tommy Nance covering first. The defensive gem ended the inning with a runner on second base.

St. Louis starter Erick Fedde faced the minimum night batters in the first three innings thanks to a pair of double plays. He lasted five innings, giving up three runs on six hits and a walk with three strikeouts.

ON DECK

Toronto ace Jose Berrios (15-9) will start the second of the three-game series on Saturday. He has a six-game win streak.

The Cardinals will counter with righty Kyle Gibson (8-6).

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.

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Stampeders return to Maier at QB eyeing chance to get on track against Alouettes

Published

6 hours ago

September 13, 2024

Anne Joseph

CALGARY – Mired in their first four-game losing skid in 20 years, the Calgary Stampeders are going back to Jake Maier at quarterback on Saturday after he was benched for a game.

It won’t be an easy assignment.

Visiting McMahon Stadium are the Eastern Conference-leading Montreal Alouettes (10-2) who own the CFL’s best record. The Stampeders (4-8) have fallen to last in the Western Conference.

“Six games is plenty of time, but also it is just six games,” said Maier. “We’ve got to be able to get on the right track.”

Calgary is in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2004.

“I do still believe in this team,” said Stampeders’ head coach and general manager Dave Dickenson. “I want to see improvement, though. I want to see guys on a weekly basis elevating their game, and we haven’t been doing that.”

Maier is one of the guys under the microscope. Two weeks ago, the second-year starter threw four interceptions in a 35-20 home loss to the Edmonton Elks.

After his replacement, rookie Logan Bonner, threw five picks in last week’s 37-16 loss to the Elks in Edmonton, the football is back in Maier’s hands.

“Any time you fail or something doesn’t go your way in life, does it stink in the moment? Yeah. But then the days go on and you learn things about yourself and you learn how to prepare a little bit better,” said Maier. “It makes you mentally tougher.”

Dickenson wants to see his quarterback making better decisions with the football.

“Things are going to happen, interceptions will happen, but try to take calculated risks, rather than just putting the ball up there and hoping that we catch it,” said Dickenson.

A former quarterback himself, he knows the importance of that vital position.

“You cannot win without good quarterback play,” Dickenson said. “You’ve got to be able to make some plays — off-schedule plays, move-around plays, plays that break down, plays that aren’t designed perfectly, but somehow you found the right guy, and then those big throws where you’re taking that hit.”

But it’s going to take a team effort, and that includes the club’s receiving corp.

“We always have to band together because we need everything to go right for our receivers to get the ball,” said Nik Lewis, the Stampeders’ receivers coach. “The running back has to pick up the blitz, the o-line has to block, the quarterback has to make the right reads, and then give us a catchable ball.”

Lewis brings a unique perspective to this season’s frustrations as he was a 22-year-old rookie in Calgary in 2004 when the Stamps went 4-14 under coach Matt Dunigan. They turned it around the next season and haven’t missed the playoffs since.”

“Thinking back and just looking at it, there’s just got to be an ultimate belief that you can get it done. Look at Montreal, they were 6-7 last year and they’ve gone 18-2 since then,” said Lewis.

Montreal is also looking to rebound from a 37-23 loss to the B.C. Lions last week. But for head coach Jason Maas, he says his team’s mindset doesn’t change, regardless of what happened the previous week.

“Last year when we went through a four-game losing streak, you couldn’t tell if we were on a four-game winning streak or a four-game losing streak by the way the guys were in the building, the way we prepared, the type of work ethic we have,” said Maas. “All our standards are set, so that’s all we focus on.”

While they may have already clinched a playoff spot, Alouettes’ quarterback Cody Fajardo says this closing stretch remains critical because they want to finish the season strong, just like last year when they won their final five regular-season games before ultimately winning the Grey Cup.

“It doesn’t matter about what you do at the beginning of the year,” said Fajardo. “All that matters is how you end the year and how well you’re playing going into the playoffs so that’s what these games are about.”

The Alouettes’ are kicking off a three-game road stretch, one Fajardo looks forward to.

“You understand what kind of team you have when you play on the road because it’s us versus the world mentality and you can feel everybody against you,” said Fajardo. “Plus, I always tend to find more joy in silencing thousands of people than bringing thousands of people to their feet.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.

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