Cole Caufield will look to continue his torrid goal-scoring pace on Tuesday when the Montreal Canadiens host the Vegas Golden Knights.
Caufield recorded his second career hat trick in Montreal’s 4-3 setback to the Boston Bruins on Saturday, extending his point streak to five games (eight goals, two assists) in the process.
With a goal on Tuesday, Caufield will match Max Pacioretty and Max Domi for the longest goal streaks in franchise history over the last 30 years. Pacioretty scored in six straight games in 2014-15, and Domi matched that in 2019-20.
Boasting a team-leading 29 goals, Caufield is trending toward becoming the Canadiens’ first 40-goal scorer since Vincent Damphousse reached the mark in 1993-94.
Caufield isn’t interested in chasing records, only wins.
“It’s obviously frustrating,” Caufield said after Montreal dropped its second straight game on Saturday. “But it’s a team game and I think we all could have been better.
“This was a huge two points that we needed. So back to work (this) week and got to learn from this one.”
Caufield joined Zack Bolduc and former top overall pick Juraj Slafkovsky in collecting a goal and an assist in the Canadiens’ 4-1 victory over the Golden Knights on Nov. 28.
Captain Nick Suzuki, who has team-leading 59 points, set up a goal in the first encounter versus Vegas. He carries a five-game point streak (two goals, seven assists) into Tuesday’s rematch.
Sam Montembeault turned aside 30 of 31 shots in the first meeting with the Golden Knights. He has struggled of late, however, yielding seven goals on 37 shots over his last two games.
Jakub Dobes, who is 5-0-1 in his last six games, likely will draw the start for the Canadiens on Tuesday.
Vegas captain Mark Stone scored his team’s lone goal against Montreal in November. However, he saw his 14-game point streak come to a halt in a 7-1 shellacking by the Ottawa Senators on Sunday.
“It looked like an NHL team versus a junior team,” Stone said after his club fell for the third time in four games following a season-high seven-game winning streak.
“It just wasn’t, it wasn’t what we are. So, I’m sure there’s certain things that we’ll probably flush, but you can’t just flush it, because you can’t let this be the expectation.”
Golden Knights head coach Bruce Cassidy wasn’t going to leave it there.
“I didn’t like our battle level at all, our compete, our races early on,” Cassidy said. “And typically the team will have pushback, but we didn’t really have that either. So this one, we’re going to have to have an honest discussion about it.”
New acquisition Rasmus Andersson provided his team’s lone goal on Sunday. Andersson was playing in just his second game with the Golden Knights after being acquired in a trade with the Calgary Flames on Jan. 18.
Jack Eichel, who leads the team in assists (42) and points (61), saw his 11-game point streak (seven goals, 13 assists) come to a halt on Sunday.
