For the fifth game in a row, Maxime Lapierre’s line scored. But for the second straight game, it was the captain’s line that made the difference.
Actually I feel it’s somehow unfair to the rest of the team. The Habs played a very solid game, played close to 60 minutes and were a bit unlucky to even have to play two minutes of overtime.
Alex Kovalev scored the opening goal midway through the first period from a superb setup from Alex Tanguay. That powerplay goal gave the team a lot of confidence but the team was already in control of the game. The first period ended with the Habs leading 11-2 in shots on net. It was 24-8 after two periods and honestly, if it wasn’t for a solid performance from Karri Ramo, it could have been 3-0 or 4-0.
The Habs played another very solid 10 minutes. Guillaume Latendresse scored his 12th of the year with a wrap around after 5 minutes of play. And up to the midpoint in third period the Canadiens looked like they really controlled the game. And then a black puck ended up immobile on blue paint and none of the three red sweaters was able to put a stick on it to clear it out. Komisarek actually missed twice the puck.
And then Tampa Bay seemed to remember the taste of victory, which wasn’t there earlier, and they really opened up the play, skated harder and put some pressure on the Canadiens. They tied the game with 5 minutes to go on a deflected shot. I can’t blame Price. He had a fairly good game considering he was untested for forty minutes.
But in overtime, the main line took the game back. After seeing Tanguay and Kovalev putting pressure for over a minute in Tampa Bay territory, Saku Koivu took the ice and started a play with Thomas Plekanec and Andrei Markov that didn’t really pan out but Captain K was at the right place at the right time to pick up a loose puck and shot, twice, to get the winning goal.
I’ll leave the review at that, I’m sure Rocket will have a fantastic review of his own. But since I was at the game, I thought I’d leave you with some random thoughts about the Habs, the Medias and other unimportant matters.
To quote Homer Simpson “Mmmmmm. Overpriced hot dogs.”
It is unbelievable how many hot women wearing red-white-and-blue you can fit inside a single building.
What happened with the Plekanec line? They haven’t contributed in quite some time and despite getting multiple shots on net didn’t really seem like a threat all night (powerplay excluded)
It’s nice to see the players’ reaction to the winning goal.
Whatever Rocket says, Brisebois wasn’t playing that bad!
I am so unbelievably tired of the Montreal Media creating stories and controversy all over the Habs. I understand the “get the stories, sell copies, get ratings” mentality but this is getting ridiculous. Don’t they realize the fans were never the problem for getting free agents, THEY are! I thought about making a petition to ask the media to treat the team more respectfully and stop thinking they are “speaking for the fans”. Then I realize it wouldn’t work. And that I was lazy.
Right now the Canadiens are still in 8th place in Eastern Conference two points behind the Rangers, three behind Pittsburgh (with one game in hand over both team) and fours points behind Carolina (with two games in hand). There are fours clubs under the Canadiens in the standings that still aren’t eliminated. Here are the max amount of points they could get if they won all their games.
Ottawa: 92
Toronto: 91
Buffalo: 96
Florida: 97
Tomorrow, the only important game involves the Buffalo Sabres and the Toronto Maple Leafs. But on Saturday, everybody is playing. Rangers-Penguins, Carolina-New Jersey, Ottawa-Atlanta, Boston-Toronto and of course Montreal-Buffalo.
This weekend should prove most interesting for certain team playoffs hope.