Vegas is the tallest and heaviest team in the NHL, but Montreal has had more hits in each of the first four games of this playoff series.
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Here are five things you should know about Game 5 of the Canadiens-Golden Knights Stanley Cup semifinal series at T-Mobile Arena Tuesday (9 p.m., SN, TVA Sports, TSN-690 Radio, 98.5 FM).
Advantage Vegas? The Golden Knights regained the home-ice advantage with their 2-1 overtime win at the Bell Centre Sunday night, but the first four games have shown that playing at home is no guarantee of success. The teams split the first two games in Las Vegas and also split the two games in Montreal to leave the best-of-seven series tied at two games apiece. Game 6 will be back at the Bell Centre on Thursday and, if a deciding seventh game is necessary, it will be played Saturday in Las Vegas.
Lehner provides large challenge: The Canadiens will have to deal with goaltender Robin Lehner’s imposing frame again after the Swede made 27 saves in the Vegas win Sunday. The 6-foot-4, 250-pound Lehner isn’t as mobile as Marc-André Fleury, but he is two inches taller and 65 pounds heavier, which means he covers a lot of the net. Montreal will have to figure out a way to get Lehner moving in the crease if they hope to beat him. Carey Price will continue to be in goal for the Canadiens. He has a 2.08 goals-against average and a .931 save percentage.
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Size doesn’t matter: The Golden Knights are the tallest and heaviest team in the NHL. Going into this series, there were concerns the Canadiens wouldn’t be able to handle the challenge of playing a physical game. Those fears have been unfunded because the Canadiens have outhit the Golden Knights in each of the four games. Montreal had a 40-24 edge in hits in Game 4 Sunday and some of the individual numbers were interesting. Josh Anderson, a physical forward, led the Canadiens with 10 hits and defenceman Ben Chiarot had five, which is to be expected. But it was surprising that Nick Suzuki had seven hits and Arturri Lehkonen had four. They are each 5-foot-11.
Killer defence: The Montreal penalty kill failed to distinguish itself during the regular season, ranking 23rd with a success rate of 78.5 per cent. But it has been a different story in the playoffs. The Golden Knights failed to score on their only power play Sunday night, as the Canadiens set an NHL playoff record by not allowing a power-play goal for an 11th consecutive game. Despite offensive threats like Mark Stone, Max Pacioretty and Alex Pietrangelo, the Golden Knights were not very good on the power play in the regular season and have converted only 10.3 per cent of their chances in the playoffs. They are 0-for-11 in four games against Montreal.
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Habs need more offence: The shutdown line of Phil Danault, Brendan Gallagher and Lehkonen has done an outstanding job of keeping Vegas’s top scorers, Stone and Pacioretty, from scoring, but they have unable to make a contribution at the other end of the ice. All three players have been shut out in this series and Gallagher has only two goals in the playoffs, Lehkonen has one and Danault has been limited to a pair of assists. The line has had its chances, but three goals on 87 shots translates to a 3.44 per cent shooting percentage.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMifmh0dHBzOi8vbW9udHJlYWxnYXpldHRlLmNvbS9zcG9ydHMvaG9ja2V5L25obC9ob2NrZXktaW5zaWRlLW91dC9jYW5hZGllbnMtYXQtZ29sZGVuLWtuaWdodHMtZ2FtZS01LWZpdmUtdGhpbmdzLXlvdS1zaG91bGQta25vd9IBrAFodHRwczovL21vbnRyZWFsZ2F6ZXR0ZS5jb20vc3BvcnRzL2hvY2tleS9uaGwvaG9ja2V5LWluc2lkZS1vdXQvY2FuYWRpZW5zLWF0LWdvbGRlbi1rbmlnaHRzLWdhbWUtNS1maXZlLXRoaW5ncy15b3Utc2hvdWxkLWtub3cvd2NtLzZhOTQ4YWFiLWM5NzctNGE4OC05NWMyLWNhZjYzMGZjN2EyYy9hbXAv?oc=5
2021-06-22 11:03:45Z
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