Dale Weise has never been so hot, all least in the NHL.
The Montreal winger scored his eighth goal of the season and the Canadiens got a 4-1 victory over the New York Islanders on Thursday night.
Weise was only ever known as a scoring star when he had 48 points in 19 games in the Netherlands during the 2011-2012 lockout — there, he earned the nickname “Dutch Gretzky.”
Photo: Eric Bolte, USA TODAY Sports
Now, the 27-year-old has taken over the team lead in goals, only two short of his career high of 10 set last season, with five in the past four games.
“I don’t really pay attention to individual stats,” Weise said. “I’m just glad our line is playing well and contributing the way we are. We’re scoring some big goals for our team.”
Weise and linemates David Desharnais and Tomas Fleischmann each have six points in the past four games.
Desharnais and Brendan Gallagher scored 1 minute, 33 seconds apart in the third period and Tomas Plekanec added an empty-net goal for Montreal. The Canadiens are 3-0-1 since Mike Condon replaced injured Carey Price as the starting goaltender and 12-2-1 overall.
Kyle Okposo scored and the Islanders lost for the fourth time in five games, including two overtime defeats. Isles captain John Tavares returned from missing three games with an illness and had a few chances, including missing an open net from the doorstep, but was kept off the scoresheet.
A tight-checking game turned on a lucky break at 6:22 of the third period when a puck went off linesman Michel Cormier and set up a two-on-one. Fleischmann then fed Desharnais for the go-ahead goal.
“Obviously they got a break there,” Okposo said. “We hadn’t given them a lot offensively. They didn’t have much going. It was a kind of a ping-pong match, but they got a break when they needed it.”
Montreal had a 24-18 shot advantage and beat former Canadiens goaltender Jaroslav Halak for only the second time in six meetings.
The Canadiens have not skipped a beat since Price suffered an undisclosed injury last week in Edmonton. Condon, a 25-year-old rookie from Needham, Massachusetts, has allowed nine goals in six games. He is 5-0-1 with a 1.50 goals-against average and a .941 save percentage.
In other NHL action, it was:
Washington 4, Boston 1; Ottawa 3, Winnipeg 2 (SO); Tampa Bay, 4 Buffalo 1; Nashville 3, Minnesota 2; Calgary 2, Philadelphia 1 (OT); Arizona 4, Colorado 2.
US national team star Folarin Balogun was among the scorers as AS Monaco on Friday won 3-1 at Paris Saint-Germain, dealing a blow to the side from the French capital before they face Chelsea in a crunch UEFA Champions League round-of-16 tie. Maghnes Akliouche gave Monaco a first-half lead at the Parc des Princes, and Aleksandr Golovin doubled their advantage early in the second half of the French Ligue 1 clash. Bradley Barcola pulled one back for the reigning European champions, but Balogun struck shortly after with a fifth goal in his last five games as Monaco claimed a precious
Teenage star Lamine Yamal’s superbly-taken goal on Saturday earned Barcelona a 1-0 win at Athletic Bilbao in Spanish La Liga. The champions restored their four-point lead over second-placed Real Madrid, who had on Friday temporarily closed the gap by beating Celta Vigo. Atletico Madrid tightened their grip on third with an entertaining 3-2 win over Real Sociedad. Yamal, 18, curled into the top corner after 68 minutes to split the sides at Athletic’s San Mames stadium. “We’re already seeing what Lamine can do — he puts it right in the top corner, and there’s nothing the keeper can do,” Barca
West Ham United on Monday advanced to the FA Cup quarter-finals with a 5-3 penalty shoot-out win against Brentford, who paid the price for Dango Ouattara’s spot-kick blunder. Nuno Espirito Santo’s side twice blew the lead as Jarrod Bowen’s double was canceled out by an Igor Thiago brace to force extra-time in the 2-2 draw at the London Stadium, but in the shoot-out, Brentford winger Ouattara attempted a chipped Panenka penalty, but his woeful effort was straight at West Ham goalkeeper Alphonse Areola. It was an awful mistake by the Burkina Faso international and West Ham took full advantage. Bowen, Valentin Castellanos, Callum
CHANCE TO QUALIFY: Both teams now have three points from two games, and Taiwan sit ahead of Vietnam and behind Japan, who last night beat India 11-0 Taiwan yesterday defeated Vietnam 1-0 to move into second place in Group C at the AFC Women’s Asian Cup with one match remaining. Su Yu-hsuan scored the decisive goal in the 26th minute after Taiwan midfielder Saki Matsunaga’s shot hit the crossbar, leaving Su to nod the rebound into an empty net for the team which won the last of their three Asian Cup titles in 1981. It was a deserved victory for Taiwan, 2-0 losers to Japan on Wednesday, who created several chances to extend their lead. Vietnam, the 2022 quarter-finalist, beat India in their opener, but struggled to
RSS