This is Montreal’s first game outside of Canada in 2021 and will be played in front of a noisy crowd of 17,884-a far cry from the situation where COVID-19 restrictions are allowed north of the border throughout the season.

Montreal’s Cole Caufield set the only record for Habs in the second frame of the powerful game.

Carey Price made 26 of 30 stops for the Canadians, and Marc Andre Fleury contributed 28 saves for the Golden Cavaliers.

Watch | The Canadians lost their first game against the Golden Cavaliers:

The Cavaliers controlled Monday’s game almost from the opening standoff. From the moment they defeated the gliding Kyrie Price on the stick side, they evened their first game with a terrifying Theodore single timer. .

They rewritten the score to 2-0 early in the second quarter, when Theodore pretended to shoot and pushed it to Martinez. Martinez exploded in the nearly empty net, leaving Price in vain. Go over the crease.

Montreal destroyed Fleury’s hopes of elimination with a men’s advantage at 12:05, when Caulfield buried a juicy rebound of Taylor Tofrey’s shot for his first goal in the playoffs.

But the momentum was short-lived: less than a minute later, Janmark missed Alex Tuch’s drift shot from the edge of the crease with a score of 3-1, past Price’s outstretched mat.

Watch | Habs’ Price offers amazing glove savings:

Montreal goalkeeper Kyrie Price denied Vegas forward Mark Stone with a stunning glove save in the first game of the Stanley Cup semi-final series. 0:57

Cavaliers guard Holden led 4-1 in the middle of the third quarter, and then Price walked to the bench. This was a four-minute six-on-five hockey game that gave Fleury the opportunity to show off to the fans.

This series is expected to be a wonderful game-almost every scoring sprint will end in a fight behind the net or at the side of the net, with the often frustrated Habs forward Brendan Gallagher in it.

Even so, there was only one powerful play per side in the first game-Montreal failed to take advantage of the early high-intensity call to Vegas center Jonathan Marcheso, and then Phillip Daneault in Montreal territory After dragging down Alex Pietrangelo (Alex Pietrangelo) in the depths, he defeated the man’s advantage.

The free throw situation changed rapidly in the second quarter.

Watch | Harbs’ Kyrie Price makes the shooter feel “insufficient”:

Rob Pizzo and Athletic’s Montreal correspondent Arpon Basu learned more about the Habs playoffs. 9:47

When Habs defender Ben Chiarot’s flower ball clearance attempt hit the net over the glass behind Fleury, the second quarter only lasted 7 seconds, which was a decision to delay the game.

The number one Golden Cavaliers won the NHL’s best 40 games in a shortened 56 regular season games, and tied with Colorado for the highest score in the league-23 points higher than Montreal in the standings.

But the Canadians have been at a disadvantage twice in this playoffs.

Watch | The Canadians continue the incredible playoffs:

Rob Pizzo broke the team’s amazing performance into the final four. 4:59

They are not expected to beat the division-leading Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round, nor the third-ranked Winnipeg Jets in the second round. The team shut up critics in both cases and entered Vegas on a seven-game winning streak, including sweeping the Jets.

However, for Habs, these are not all familiar areas.

The Montreal-Las Vegas series is the NHL’s first crossover game this season, and a federal exemption allows the team to bypass the 14-day quarantine requirement.

The number of spectators on Monday was in stark contrast to the empty Canadian Arena during the regular season, and even the 2,500 fans allowed at the Bell Center in Montreal during the playoffs.