MONTREAL — It took five games and a little more tape on his stick but Juraj Salfkovsky finally scored his first National Hockey League goal.
The Canadiens used a three-goal first period to cruise to a 6-2 win over the Arizona Coyotes on Thursday. The Bell Centre crowd gave the first overall pick a standing ovation as the PA announcer called his name and kept it going by chanting Slafkovsky's name after the second-period marker.
"It’s amazing. To score my first goal in this building, it’s a dream come true for sure,” he said. “I think nothing better could happen after a first NHL goal than what happened out there.”
“I’m happy for the kid,” added Habs coach Martin St. Louis. “There’s a lot of pressure for an 18-year-old, first overall pick, to play here in Montreal and the fans made a nice gesture to encourage the kid scoring his first goal. I was expecting nothing less, we have spectacular fans.”
Asked whether his first goal was directly attributed to fully taping over his stick, unlike his first four games, Slafkovsky reluctantly agreed.
“I think a lot of guys in the locker room think that and maybe coaches as well, so maybe yes,” he said.
Josh Anderson, Cole Caufield and Brendan Gallagher all scored to give Montreal the early cushion.
Nick Suzuki notched a penalty shot marker and Sean Monahan added an empty-netter. Jake Allen made 25 saves in the win.
The Canadiens (3-2-0) improved to 3-0 at home on the season with the victory.
“We're very process-focused but the result is important for the confidence of the crew,” St. Louis said. “Winning’s got to be part of the process too.
“We really like, when our game’s at its best, what we look like,” Gallagher added. “It’s just a matter of consistently doing that. And we’re gonna have some tasks, we’re gonna have some challenges and we’ll see how we handle it but so far I like the way we started.”
Coming off a 4-2 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Coyotes (1-3-0) failed to build on any potential momentum. J.J. Moser and Travis Boyd scored for Arizona in the third period. Lawson Crouse added two assists.
“We had an A day in Toronto, and today, it was not as sharp,” Coyotes coach Andre Tourigny said. “That's the beauty of the game. You never know who will win because everybody can have a great day or a bad day, but it's our job to have more good days than bad days.”
In his first start with the Coyotes, Connor Ingram stopped 24 of the 29 shots he faced.
“I think we owe him one, that's for sure,” Tourigny said. “I think the first four shots were scoring chances so it didn’t make it easy on him.”
Anderson got the Habs started 1:58 into the opening period as he scored on a rebound from a Jonathan Drouin shot that hit the post.
Just over two minutes later, Montreal doubled its advantage when Crouse gave up a costly turnover to Caufield in the slot where his shot bounced past Ingram and into the net.
Gallagher tried his luck on a two-on-one and beat Ingram glove side to open his 2022-23 account on the Canadiens' fourth shot of the game 7:17 into the first to make it 3-0.
Slafkovsky notched his first NHL goal 8:17 into the second period when he intercepted the puck and beat Ingram with a wrist shot from the top of the left faceoff circle.
Later in the period, Suzuki was given a penalty shot when he was tripped by Juuso Valimaki while Montreal was short-handed. The captain took all the space he needed then lobbed the puck over Ingram to increase the Habs' lead to 5-0 18:27 into the second.
The Coyotes ruined Allen’s shutout bid with two quick goals in the third period. Crouse sent the puck to Moser who fired a one-timer atop the left faceoff circle to finally break the ice at 6:21.
Crouse then fed Boyd who gave Arizona its second goal at 8:18.
With under four minutes remaining, Monahan scored an empty-net goal to close it out.
CAUFIELD ON FIRE
Cole Caufield picked up right where he left off in the home stretch of the 2021-22 season. The 21 year-old winger has four goals and one assist in five games this season.
Caufield’s goal on Thursday night was his 26th since Martin St. Louis took over as the Habs' bench boss. During that span, only Kirill Kaprizov (31), Auston Matthews (30), Elias Lindholm (28) and Steven Stamkos (28) have more goals than the 21 year-old.
NEXT UP
The Canadiens will enter the back-half of a four-game home stint when they welcome the Dallas Stars on Saturday. Arizona continues its six-game road trip with a stop in Ottawa to take on the Senators on Saturday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 20, 2022.
Tristan D'Amours, The Canadian Press