Bruce Cassidy reached his 400th win as a coach on Thursday when his Vegas Golden Knights won 3-2 against the Ottawa Senators. Cassidy became the eighth active NHL coach to achieve this milestone.
However, the Ottawa native didn’t have much time to celebrate, as the Golden Knights immediately traveled to Montreal for their season-long five-game road trip, which continues on Saturday against the Canadiens.
“It feels great,” Cassidy said about reaching 400 wins. “You never know where your numbers are going to end up, but right now, I’m just thinking about No. 401.”
The win against Ottawa came after Vegas had suffered their first shutout loss since January, losing 3-0 to Toronto on Wednesday. The Golden Knights’ victory over Ottawa marked their second game in a back-to-back, and it was their fourth win in 10 road games (4-4-2) this season. Vegas has never lost in Ottawa’s Canadian Tire Centre, with a 6-0-1 record there.
In the win, Ilya Samsonov made 38 saves, including 16 in the final period when Ottawa outshot Vegas 18-5. Pavel Dorofeyev scored his team-leading 10th goal of the season midway through the third period, which turned out to be the game-winning goal.
“We managed to get it to the finish line,” Cassidy said. “That’s a good win for the team even though it got a little hectic there. But you’ve got to find ways to win. There are no easy wins in this league, so good on the guys.”
The Golden Knights will now face a Montreal team that has won two straight games and three of its last four. The Canadiens are coming off a 3-0 win over the Edmonton Oilers on Monday, in which Sam Montembeault made 30 saves for his second shutout of the season. Jake Evans, Brendan Gallagher, and Kaiden Guhle all scored to lead Montreal.
“I’m just really proud of the way we played tonight,” Montembeault said after earning his third career shutout. “The last few games, we’ve taken a really good step in the right direction defensively, and now we’ve just got to be more consistent with it.”
Montembeault has been in excellent form, going 3-1-0 with a 0.93 goals-against average, a .966 save percentage, and a shutout in his last four games.
While Montreal has outscored Columbus and Edmonton 8-1 in their last two wins, they have still allowed the most goals in the Atlantic Division with 71, leaving them with a minus-17 goal differential.
“The win was great,” Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said. “Obviously, the result. But to me, it’s how we won that galvanized the group. … To me, it’s how we did it, not so much the result. I feel, right now, we’re in a good place to reinforce the stuff that’s working.”
The Golden Knights will be playing their third game in four nights, while Montreal has had four days off, with practices on three of those days.
“We should come out with some good energy (Saturday),” St. Louis said. “I think our start is (going to be) very, very important.”
