Montreal Canadiens vs. Chicago Blackhawks Pick & Prediction NOVEMBER 25th 2022

The Chicago Blackhawks will try to snap a five-game losing streak Friday afternoon when they open a three-game homestand against the Montreal Canadiens.

The Blackhawks are tied with the Anaheim Ducks and Ottawa Senators for the fewest wins in the NHL with six. They enter the contest in the Central Division cellar with just 15 points following a 6-4 road loss to the Dallas Stars on Wednesday.

The final score tells only a part of the picture of the disheartening loss for the Blackhawks.

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Chicago, thanks to a Max Domi goal at the 9:37 mark of the third period, was cruising with a 4-1 lead before Dallas scored three times in less than four minutes to tie it. Radek Faksa then scored the game-winning goal with 1:33 left and Jason Robertson sealed it for the Stars with an empty-netter with nine seconds left.

Final tally: Dallas scored five goals in just 9:36.

"We had no business losing that game," said Domi, who finished with a goal and an assist. "That's a game we've got to find a way to win and close that one out. We were in complete control."

Said Blackhawks coach Luke Richardson: "We didn't have the same work ethic (in the third period) and sat back a little bit. They got some momentum and they started coming, and they're a very good offensive team.

"We just didn't handle it well. Unfortunately, I thought the guys worked really hard for 40, 50 minutes but the game's 60 minutes. That's just a tough lesson to learn, that we can't sit back."

Montreal, which has won two of its past three games, bounced back from an ugly 7-2 home loss to the Buffalo Sabres to earn a 3-2 road victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Wednesday.

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Arber Xhekaj and David Savard scored goals 57 seconds apart to give the Canadiens a 2-1 lead early in the third period and Sean Monahan added an empty net goal.

"I'm happy with the mindset we had tonight," Montreal coach Martin St. Louis said. "Simplified it a bit. We played a smart game and not beat ourselves early to get through the first five or six minutes, because I feel the last two or three games that's put us behind the eight-ball."

The Canadiens also got a big game from goalie Sam Montembeault who made 30 saves, including two breakaways in a 14-second span in the second period to keep the score 0-0.

It was a nice bounce-back effort for Montembeault who had allowed two goals in the first minute of the 7-2 drubbing by the Sabres a night earlier.

"We played better defensively, especially compared to the last few games," Montembeault said, according to the Montreal Gazette. "We didn't have as many turnovers. That was one thing that was really killing us and teams were creating a lot of offense off the rush. There weren't that many shots tonight."

Montembeault made a glove save on Mathieu Olivier's breakaway after Olivier came out of the penalty box, and followed that up with another stop on Gustav Nyquist's breakaway try just 14 seconds later.

"He's amazing," Xhekaj said. "He comes up big for us and that gives us energy and keeps us in the game."

--Field Level Media

PREDICTION

Montreal Canadiens

3

4

Chicago Blackhawks

PREDICTION

Montreal Canadiens

3

4

Chicago Blackhawks

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.

Taylor Raddysh and Caleb Jones 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 Soderholm 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