A poor start undermined the Canadian’s chances at T-Mobile Arena on Sunday, but he nearly played a trick on the Pacific Division leader.

Newcomer Ivan Barbashev scored twice, Jonathan Quick stopped 25 shots on his first appearance in his new uniform and the Vegas Golden Knights defeated Montreal 4-3.

The tenacious Canadian almost managed to break a three-goal deficit in the third period. However, Quick stopped the bleeding in time.

“We started badly. We didn’t have any energy in the first third, recognized the Canadian’s head coach, Martin St-Louis. I liked how we finished second and took that to third place. »

The Habs ended their journey with a 1-3-0 record.

Mike Matheson, Alex Belzile and Rafaël Harvey-Pinard scored in the last third for the Canadian (26-33-4) who suffered his third loss in a row. Jake Allen made 24 saves.

Shea Theodore and Reilly Smith also scored for the Golden Knights (38-19-6) who won their third straight game.

Defenseman Frédéric Allard, who was acquired by the Los Angeles Kings on Friday, wore a uniform for the Canadiens after being urgently recalled from the American Hockey League. He replaced Kaiden Guhle, who appeared to have injured his shoulder against the Anaheim Ducks on Friday.

Allard was in his second game in the NHL.

“It’s good for a defender if the coach doesn’t notice too much,” said St-Louis. He kept it simple and played good minutes. »

The Canadiens will be back at Bell Center Tuesday when they host the Carolina Hurricanes.

too little too late

The Golden Knights fourth line set the tone of the game from the first sequence of play and the home side didn’t let up during the first third.

Quick signaled for the first time by stopping a shot from Rem Pitlick at point-blank range.

The Golden Knights’ efforts were rewarded when Theodore opened the scoring after 12:37 and surprised Allen with a shot from the top of the goal area after a scramble near the net.

Allen bounced back shortly after with back-to-back saves against Michael Amadio and William Karlsson.

The Golden Knights scored a second goal in the first period with 18.2 seconds remaining. Barbashev benefited from a perfect snap from Jack Eichel just after a clearance from Joel Edmundson was intercepted by Alex Pietrangelo.

The Canadian was more dangerous in the second half and was able to put Quick to the test.

However, the two-time Stanley Cup champion closed the door on Josh Anderson and Jesse Ylönen.

A rally by Denis Gurianov led to the Golden Knights’ third goal at 7:20. Smith finished a nice rally with Karlsson in a two-for-one attack.

Anderson got a second golden chance when he escaped, but he missed the target.

Matheson finally eluded Quick’s vigilance after 2:05 of play in the third period, scoring after poking fun at Paul Cotter’s coverage.

The Golden Knights experienced a surge of energy when undermanned. Chandler Stephenson faced Allen in a breakaway.

Moments later, with the teams level, a shot from Nic Hague ricocheted twice, the second from Barbashev, before narrowly crossing the goal line at 7:44.

True to his form, the Canadian didn’t give up. Belzile defeated Quick 24 seconds later with a precision shot, then Harvey-Pinard closed the gap to just one goal at 8:42.

Quick then did what was necessary to maintain his team’s lead. He played luck at the very end of the game when a shot from Mike Hoffman hit the post.

Dressing Room Echoes

Defender David Savard believes the Canadian could benefit from his trip despite his record.

“We have always been in games. I’m happy about the effort. We can then build our concepts on this. »

Alex Belzile underlined how much the Canadian hopes for the comeback.

“We ran out of energy in the first half, but it was the last part of our journey and we still had gas in the tank. We wanted to go up. The two goals gave us some momentum and there were still 10 minutes to play. We gave everything. »

Frédéric Allard pinched himself because the fact that there was no flight taking him back to Montreal from Los Angeles on Saturday contributed to his first appearance in the Canadian uniform.

“It’s indescribable. When I got here I had tears in my eyes. It was a dream to wear the Canadian uniform. I have an uncle with a basement full of Canadiens merchandise and with the Canadiens logo everywhere. It’s a pride to wear the Canadian jersey and represent the people of Montreal and Quebec. »

To see in the video