The Pittsburgh Penguins completely dominated the first 10 minutes of the game, the Montreal Canadiens didn’t even have a shot on net up to that point and then… Lane Hutson got the puck in the offensive zone and started dancing.
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A bit of a head shake, a little shimmy here and there and he had NHL all-star Evgeny Malkin going the wrong way. He made a pass, got the puck right back and sent it to the slot which is when the Canadiens got their first shot of the game which was shortly followed by their second.
When Hutson dances, the momentum swings. I can’t explain it but he lifts up the crowd from its seat and he gets his teammates going and believing. There was no goal on the sequence, but it was the wake up call the Canadiens needed.
From zero shots up to that point, they got six to finish the period and they even found the back of the net through Kaiden Guhle. Pittsburgh still leads 2-1 but Martin St-Louis has got a momentum change player on his bench, a guy who wants the puck when the going gets tough and that’s a game changer for a team that wants to be in the mix.
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