Kahkonen helps Sharks shut out Canadiens to end skid

MONTREAL -- Kaapo Kahkonen made 28 saves in his first shutout for the San Jose Sharks, a 4-0 win against the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre on Tuesday.

Tomas Hertl scored twice, and Logan Couture had a goal and an assist for San Jose (8-13-4), which won for the second time in seven games (2-4-1) to end an 0-2-1 skid.
"I feel so happy for [Kahkonen]," Hertl said. "He was great tonight. He looked confident in net. He made good plays on [the] PK and it wasn't easy because we gave up some chances, but a really, really strong game from him."
It was Kahkonen's third NHL shutout; he had two with the Minnesota Wild in 2020-21.
"I think he's getting back to the level that we all expect him to be and I thought this was his best game of the year," Sharks coach David Quinn said. "He really looked comfortable in net tonight."
Jake Allen made 20 saves for Montreal (11-10-1) in his first start since he allowed seven goals on 38 shots in a 7-2 loss to the Buffalo Sabres on Nov. 22.
Sam Montembeault won consecutive road starts Wednesday (3-1 against the Columbus Blue Jackets) and Friday (3-2 in the shootout against the Chicago Blackhawks) for the Canadiens, who begin a four-game road trip at the Calgary Flames on Thursday.
"I thought 5-on-5 we had the puck pretty much the whole game," Montreal captain Nick Suzuki said. "They did a pretty good job of staying in the middle, blocking shots. We were skating around the zone a lot but not getting those prime opportunities."

The Sharks, who began a four-game trip that continues at the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday, have won seven straight games, all in regulation, at Montreal since a 2-0 loss March 21, 2015.
"It wasn't the most smooth game," San Jose forward Matt Nieto said. "But I think we just stuck to the process, and if we got hemmed in we just locked it down and got through that shift and didn't give up massive opportunities for them to score. And obviously Kaapo back there was a wall for us."
Nieto gave San Jose a 1-0 lead at 1:33 of the first period. He jammed in a loose puck in the crease after Allen got his left pad on Alexander Barabanov's wraparound attempt.
Montreal went 0-for-6 on the power play, including a 5-on-3 advantage for the first 55 seconds of the third.
"We did have a plan, we just didn't quite execute the plan and we just looked disorganized," Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said of the two-man advantage.
The Sharks have allowed six power-play goals in 25 games and lead the NHL with a 91.2 percent success rate on the penalty kill.
"Killing them with the success rate we have, you know, you have a swagger to you when you kill penalties," San Jose coach David Quinn said. "So I thought we had good swagger tonight. We've had swagger for a while killing penalties."
Hertl made it 2-0 at 2:29 of the third when he redirected Kevin Labanc's pass past Allen stick side from the slot.
Couture increased the lead to 3-0 at 3:44. He shot between Allen's pads on a clean breakaway after taking Matt Benning's long pass up the middle.

Hertl scored his second goal of the period into an empty net with 2:14 remaining for the 4-0 final.
"A couple of big blocks on 5-on-3, and I think that was the game-changer," Hertl said.
San Jose blocked 28 shots, including five by forward Nick Bonino and four by defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic.
"It wasn't like they were all over us and we didn't have an answer," Canadiens defenseman Mike Matheson said. "I think we were all over them for the most part of the game. It's just one of those ones you have to credit them for the amount of shots they blocked. I think that was kind of the recipe of the game. We generated a lot of chances but didn't quite get them through to their goalie."
NOTES: It was San Jose's second straight shutout in Montreal. The Sharks have a shutout streak of 140:14 at Bell Centre, including a 21-save shutout by Adin Hill in a 5-0 win against the Canadiens on Oct. 19, 2021. … All but three San Jose players -- forwards Luke Kunin, Steven Lorentz and Oskar Lindblom -- had at least one blocked shot. … Canadiens forward Sean Monahan had a four-game point streak end.