Canadiens edge Golden Knights, spoil Pacioretty's Montreal return

MONTREAL -- The Montreal Canadiens spoiled former captain Max Pacioretty's return to Bell Centre with a 5-4 win against the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday.

Former Golden Knights forward Tomas Tatar broke a tie with his fourth goal in three games at 12:17 of the third period. His backhand pass went into the net off Vegas defenseman Shea Theodore's stick.
"It was a good bounce, fortunate to put it in, and obviously a big win," Tatar said. "It felt good, for sure. I was extremely motivated to beat my old teammates."
WATCH: [All Golden Knights vs. Canadiens highlights]
Andrew Shaw scored twice, and rookie forward Jesperi Kotkaniemi had a goal and an assist for Montreal (9-5-3), which had lost consecutive games for the first time this season (0-1-1). Antti Niemi made 34 saves.
William Karlsson had a goal and two assists, and Marc-Andre Fleury made 22 saves for the Golden Knights (7-9-1).

"I really wanted to win," said Pacioretty, who set a season high for Vegas with nine shots.
Pacioretty received a video tribute and a standing ovation before his first game against the Canadiens since being acquired Sept. 9 for Tatar, forward prospect Nick Suzuki and a second-round pick in the 2019 NHL Draft. A five-time 30-goal scorer with Montreal, he has two goals in 13 games.
"He had a lot of chances tonight, he had a lot of shots, especially in the first and second," Golden Knights coach Gerard Gallant said. "And he's got to keep working. It's going to come sooner or later. He's a goal-scorer and that's what he's proven to do, so he's just frustrated a little bit. I thought he played real well tonight."
Karlsson scored Vegas' second power-play goal at 3:27 of the third to make it 4-3.

"We didn't lose composure, we knew what we needed to do," said Shaw, who tied it for the second time with his second goal of the game to make it 4-4 at 9:20.
Max Domi assisted on each of Shaw's goals to extend his point streak to six games. He has 10 points (four goals, six assists) during the streak, and five assists in his past two games.
Alex Tuch tied it 3-3 for Vegas on his own rebound at 14:34 of the second after Montreal scored three goals in 3:53 earlier in the period to take the lead.
Charles Hudon made it 2-1 on a backhand at 6:04; Shaw scored 65 seconds later after gathering a loose puck in front to tie it 2-2 at 7:09; and Kotkaniemi, who set up Hudon's goal, scored at 9:57 to put Montreal ahead 3-2.
"The guys fought hard," Shaw said of the Canadiens, who trailed 2-0 after the first period. "We didn't have the start we wanted, we put ourselves behind the eight ball, but we got motivated in the intermission, came out flying and we found a way to win. It builds character in the room."
Brad Hunt gave Vegas a 1-0 lead on with power-play goal from the right face-off circle at 17:40 of the first. Jonathan Marchessault made it 2-0 at 18:37 when Reilly Smith's pass deflected in off his skate.

"We worked hard for 20 minutes, it was unbelievable," Gallant said. "It was no contest, I think everybody saw that. And then you get away from it in the second period and they get three goals in the first 10 minutes. It's about work ethic. It's about working hard and competing hard and we haven't done it enough, been consistent.
"But we play really good when we're playing like that, and then we let off the gas and it seemed like Montreal took over the game from that point."

They said it

"I think no matter what I was going to be going tonight. It seemed like the story of our year so far, mine in particular. It just seemed to not go in and it seems that all the opportunities against are going in. But the good news is, minus the second period, hiccups that we've had, if we keep going like that it's going to eventually break wide open for us." -- Golden Knights forward Max Pacioretty
"I think more than anything we needed this win. We kind of started slipping from our game, and after the first period we had a talk and we kind of bounced back and we started playing our game. And the last 30 minutes we played good." -- Canadiens forward Tomas Tatar

Need to know

Pacioretty had 10 shots in a game six times with Montreal. … Domi has his second six-game point streak in the past 13 games. He has 18 points (nine goals, nine assists) during that span.

What's next

Golden Knights: At the Boston Bruins on Sunday (7 p.m. ET; NESN, ATTSN-RM, NHL.TV)
Canadiens: At the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday (9 p.m. ET; SNW, TSN2, RDS, NHL.TV)