Kirby Dach scored in the third round of the shootout to give the visiting Montreal Canadiens a 3-2 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday afternoon.
Dach, the No. 3 pick of the 2019 NHL Draft by Chicago who was traded on July 7 to Montreal for first- and third-round draft picks, skated down the slot and slapped a shot past the glove side of Blackhawks goalie Arvid Soderblom for the shootout winner.
Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki also scored during the shootout for Montreal, which improved to 3-0 in shootouts. Jonathan Toews and Andreas Athanasiou scored for Chicago in the shootout but Patrick Kane was stopped on his second-round try by Sam Montembeault.
Suzuki and Joel Edmundson each scored and Sean Monahan had two assists for Montreal, which won for the third time in its last four games. Montembeault finished with 30 saves.
Caleb Jones and Taylor Raddysh scored and Soderblom made 21 saves for Chicago, which lost its sixth straight and fell to 0-2 in shootouts.
Montreal took a 1-0 lead at the 3:21 mark of the first period on Edmundson’s first goal of the season. The score came at the end of a give-and-go with Monahan on the left wing, with Edmundson going down the slot and redirecting Monahan’s pass in off the near post. It also marked the seventh straight game that Chicago had allowed the first goal.
The Blackhawks tied it early in the second when Jones, cutting down the slot, one-timed a pass from Jason Dickinson into the left corner of the net for his first goal of the season.
Montreal regained the lead, 2-1, less than two minutes later on a power-play goal by Suzuki, who took a pass from Mike Matheson at the top of the right circle and skated in before rifling a wrist shot under the crossbar for his 12th goal.
The Canadiens had several chances to expand the lead later in the period but Soderblom stopped Brendan Gallagher’s backhand try on a breakaway, and Joel Armia and Monahan both rang shots off the goal post.
Raddysh then helped force overtime with a power-play goal with 3:54 to go in regulation, putting in the rebound of Kane’s shot from the high slot. The assist was the 763rd of Kane’s career, tying him with Chris Chelios for fourth on the all-time list among United States-born NHL players.
–Field Level Media
