Dec. 5, 2022: Canadiens at Canucks — five things you should know

Samuel Montembeault will start in goal for Habs, while defenceman David Savard is out with an upper-body injury.

VANCOUVER — Here are five things you should know about Monday’s game between the Canadiens (12-11-1) and the Vancouver Canucks (10-12-3) at Rogers Arena

Montembeault gets start: With back-to-back games on the schedule, Samuel Montembeault will start in goal for the Canadiens against the Canucks. Montembeault won his last two starts, stopping 60 of 63 shots for a .952 save percentage in road victories over the Columbus Blue Jackets and Chicago Blackhawks. Montembeault has a 5-2-1 record with a 2.48 goals-against average and a .924 save percentage. Expect Jake Allen to start in goal Tuesday when the Canadiens wrap up their four-game road trip in Seattle against the Kraken (10 p.m., TSN2, RDS, TSN 690 Radio, 98.5 FM). Canadiens defenceman David Savard will miss the game against the Canucks with an upper-body injury, while the team announced that forward Brendan Gallagher will be sidelined for at least two more weeks with a lower-body injury.

Penalty problems: The Canadiens gave up three power-play goals in their 5-3 loss Saturday in Edmonton — including two when the Oilers had a five-on-three advantage. It was the most power-play goals the Canadiens have allowed in a game this season. Penalty-killing has been one of the strong points for the Canadiens and they still ranked 10th in the NHL on the PK following Saturday’s game, with a 79.8 per cent success rate. In the previous three games, the Canadiens had killed off 15 of 16 opposition power plays.

Power-play clicks: The Canadiens went 2-for-3 on the power play against the Oilers, with Nick Suzuki and Arber Xhekaj scoring the two goals. The Canadiens have scored at least one power-play goal in three of their last four games. After Saturday’s game, they ranked 29th in the NHL on the power play with a 17.8 per cent success rate. Suzuki leads the Canadiens with five power-play goals, followed by Cole Caufield with three. Suzuki and Caufield are tied for the team lead in goals with 13. No other Canadiens player has more than five goals.

Minutes for Mike: Canadiens defenceman Mike Matheson logged a season-high 26:57 of ice time against the Oilers after fellow veteran Joel Edmundson was given a five-minute major for high-sticking and a game misconduct at 5:20 of the second period in Edmonton. After missing the first 17 games with an abdominal muscle strain, Matheson is averaging 24:19 of ice time — the most on the team. David Savard ranks second with 22:17. Matheson has 1-2-3 totals and is minus-5. Rookie defenceman Johnathan Kovacevic

First point for Armia: The Canadiens’ Joel Armia assisted on Evgenii Dadonov’s second-period goal against the Oilers for his first point in 13 games this season and then hit the crossbar in the third period. Armia, who has missed 11 games this season because of injuries, hasn’t scored since April 11 last season in a 4-2 loss to the Winnipeg Jets at the Bell Centre. Armia has two more seasons after this one remaining on his four-year, US$13.6-million contract, with an annual salary-cap hit of $3.4 million. Last season, Armia had 6-8-14 totals in 60 games and was minus-15.

OT win for Canucks: The Canucks are coming off a 3-2 overtime win against the Arizona Coyotes Saturday at Rogers Arena, and they are 6-4-0 in their last 10 games. The Canucks’ Bo Horvat scored two power-play goals against the Coyotes, including the winner in OT. After Saturday’s game, Horvat ranked third in the NHL with 19 goals, trailing the Dallas Stars’ Jason Robertson (22) and the Oilers’ Connor McDavid (21). Elias Pettersson leads the Canucks in scoring with 11-18-29 totals, followed by Horvat (19-7-26), J.T. Miller (11-14-25) and Quinn Hughes (0-23-23).

scowan@postmedia.com

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