from the CP at TSN,

The uphill climb facing the Montreal Canadiens just got a little steeper.

The only Canadian team with a shot at the Stanley Cup gave up a 4-1 loss Monday in their first of a best-of-seven semifinal battle against the top-seeded Vegas Golden Knights.

It was Montreal's first game outside of Canada in 2021, and it came before a boisterous crowd of 17,884 — a far cry from what COVID-19 restrictions have allowed north of the border all season.

It was also against an imposing and powerful team, one the Habs haven't played all year, thanks to the one-time-only North Division — again, a product of the pandemic — that kept all their regular-season games against Canadian rivals.

"It's the situation that we're in this year — for everyone right now, at this stage, you're playing a team that you haven't played all year," said interim head coach Dominique Ducharme.

The Habs appeared to be keeping pace with the Knights throughout the first period Monday, but a sudden flurry of penalties in the second — including a fluke delay of game in the opening seconds — seemed to sap their strength.

"They have their strengths for sure, but we have ours also," Ducharme said. "I really liked the way we started, but the penalties really killed our momentum and our rhythm."

continued

Game highlights are below.