Few fans would have predicted Friday's clash between the Montreal Canadiens and Detroit Red Wings to be a goalie battle, but it featured stellar performances from Jake Allen and Ville Husso.
The Habs were on the losing side of it despite a heroic 37-save effort from Allen, but his performance didn't go unappreciated by his teammates.
"(Allen) was so good, oh my God," Canadiens forward Rem Pitlick told reporters postgame. "(Head coach) Marty (St. Louis) came in here and thanked him. He was really on, and he kept it close for us, that's for sure."
The contest was tighter than the 3-0 score would suggest. The Red Wings potted a pair of empty-netters to keep the Canadiens out of reach in the final moments of the game.
However, the contest looked like it could have turned into a blowout early on: Allen made a franchise-record-tying 25 saves in the first period, but the game remained scoreless until Red Wings rookie Elmer Soderblom broke the stalemate early in the third period.
"I don't know if we can say that it was a good game," Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki said. "I think we couldn't match their intensity early, and they were kind of on us for the first period-and-a-half, probably. We relied heavily on Jake Allen to stand on his head, and we want to do better than that."
Husso was no slouch at the other end of the ice, either. He pitched a 29-save shutout, but he certainly had the easier night of the two netminders. The Red Wings controlled 74.2% of the scoring chances, 87.5% of the high-danger chances, and 79.8% of the expected goals at five-on-five, according to Natural Stat Trick.
One of Allen's most eye-popping efforts came in the second period when he made a flashy stick save on Andrew Copp, but the veteran netminder cheekily said that play isn't typically in his toolbox.
"There's no words to describe that. I think he fumbled the puck a little bit; it rolled on him," Allen said. "It sort of just hit my stick. So, definitely not something in my recipe book."
Allen was also solid during the Canadiens' season-opening 4-3 victory against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday.
Next up for Montreal is a matchup against the Washington Capitals on Saturday at 7 p.m. ET.
