Canadiens Win Proves Costly

Montreal, QC -- The Montreal Canadiens won 6-2 against the Calgary Flames on Saturday night, but it came at a cost. The team lost Matt Dumba again this season due to injury. "The guy can't seem to catch a break," stated head coach Barry Trotz.
Just 2 minutes and 57 seconds into the first period, Dumba was injured while blocking a shot by the Flames' Tomas Tatar. Dumba was taken off by stretcher to a local hospital and evaluated. As of Sunday morning, Dumba had been placed on injured reserve with an upper-body injury for at least a month.

The team released the following statement Saturday night following the game:

"Very unfortunate for Matt Dumba. We wish him a speedy, yet safe recovery. A big blow to our blueline."

After a scoreless 1st period, some may have thought the Habs loss on the blueline would catch up to them, but the Canadiens opened up the scoring at the 10:36 mark of the 2nd period on Evgenii Dadonov's 12th goal of the season. About 45 seconds later, PK Subban netted the equalizer for the Flames with just his 2nd goal of the season. The Habs would add a powerplay goal from Mackenzie Weegar about a minute later and lead 2-1 headed into the 3rd period. "We knew we lost a key piece defensively, but with a one goal lead headed into the third, we knew we needed to step up," stated defenseman Jordan Oesterle.

The Habs opened things up in the 3rd scoring four consecutive with goals from Chris Kreider (2), Brock Nelson and Marcus Foligno. The Flames would add another goal from Anthony DeAngelo late on the powerplay to cut the lead to four. "Big win on the road, especially after losing Dumba," added coach Trotz. With Dumba being sidelined for at least the next month, the team will shuffle the lines around and look to young defenseman Carl Dahlstrom to fill in.