@ Montréal

The boys really decided to ease into the game by getting outshot eleven to two in the opening frame. It is nice to see the traditional spirit of giving is alive and well as the defense let Juraj Slafkovsky tip one in shortly after puck drop. Michael Pezzetta earned himself a ten minute misconduct and a fighting major early on. Apparently he was tired of sitting on the bench and wanted a better view from the locker room. Teddy Blueger also got into a scrap and picked up an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for good measure. A too many men penalty rounded out the chaos before Ivan Demidov hammered home a power play goal to make it two to zero. I was already looking for the remote before the first intermission even arrived.

Because this team loves to play with my emotions, they actually showed signs of life in the second period. Henrik Rybinski and Colton Sissons both found the back of the net on the power play to tie things up. Sissons was actually useful in the dot winning 90 percent of his faceoffs while Marc Johnstone briefly gave us the lead. Samuel Hlavaj and Artur Akhtyamov both finished with identical 86 percent save rates, which is certainly a choice for a professional tandem. Of course, holding a lead is against the franchise bylaws, so Lane Hutson tied it up in the third. We managed to survive a late roughing penalty from Brendan Brisson, but the inevitable arrived in overtime. Juraj Slafkovsky took a penalty in the extra frame to give us hope, yet Cole Caufield still ended our misery with a snap shot. Losing in Montreal is a heritage moment for this organization and I am just glad they stayed on brand.