Montreal Canadiens Playoffs Game 14 Away game 7 | Thursday May 22, 2014 | Rangers lead third round series 2-1 |
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Game Recap:Coach Michel Therrien decided to tinker with his forward lines resulting in a very ineffective offensive lineup. Dustin Tokarski had raise the level of his game to withstand a first period where the Habs were outshot 14-4. Andrei Markov tied the game early in the second. Two own goals, one by each team late in the third brought the teams to overtime. While Tomas Plekanec and Alex Galchenyuk had underperformed for three periods, they combined for the game-winner just one minute into overtime. Plus / Minus ▲ Dustin Tokarski, Brendan Gallagher, Josh Gorges, Andrei Markov, Alexei Emelin ▼ Thomas Vanek, P.K Subban, Rene Bourque |
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Boxscore:
| FINAL | 1 | 2 | 3 | OT1 | – | T |
| Canadiens | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | – | 3 |
| Rangers | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | – | 2 |
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Shots on Goal:
| FINAL | 1 | 2 | 3 | OT | – | T |
| Canadiens | 4 | 9 | 9 | 3 | – | 25 |
| Rangers | 14 | 13 | 9 | 1 | – | 37 |
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| Post-game Press Conference |
- “Dustin Tokarski was phenomenal tonight. He’s a battler and the most important thing, you know, he’s a winner.”
- “You’ve got to give a lot of credit to the Rangers. They got out of the gate tonight like we did at the Bell Centre our last game. We weathered the storm and I felt our team played with more confidence as the game went on. They got a break at the end to tie the game up, hit (Alexei) Emelin’s skate. But without Tokarski’s performance, probably the result would have been different.”
- “The challenge for us as a group is we had to refocus. (There was) just a few things that we had to pay attention (to) but it’s just a matter of refocus pretty quick (between the third period and the start of overtime.) You’re 20 seconds away (from winning the game) and they score late in the game.”
- “When you take a decision like that (to start Dustin Tokarski) it’s not one guy obviously. As a group we all felt the same way: with the kid’s background and the way that he played for this year, we knew that the kid is a winner.”
Captain Brian Gionta
- “(The win) gives you confidence but at the same time we’ve gotta go back and try to figure out what we can do better to establish a better forecheck, to get on their ‘D’, force them to turn pucks over and come to the net with it.”
Forward Alex Galchenyuk
- “I wasn’t really happy with the way I played tonight. I was hoping I would get a bounce going my way and sure enough I did. I can’t be more happy about it.”
- “To be honest, it doesn’t really matter. We won the game. We’re going to take this right now, winning the game rather than generating a lot of chances and lose.”
- “Obviously we want to create as many chances as we can, but sometimes it’s tough with the chemistry. We didn’t play together for a while. It’s a new line. We’re trying to adjust to each other. But we get the win and that’s the most important thing.”
Defenseman P.K. Subban
- “Danny (Briere) spoke up right before we went out and he said, ‘Listen, overtime, it’s in their building, they’re emotionally high, scored a big goal, we gotta be ready at the start because you know they’re going to come out hard and try to end it early.’ We had to be ready right from the start and I thought our first couple shifts, our first two shifts, were great. We put ourselves in a good position to win the hockey game.”
Goalie Dustin Tokarski
- “Everything’s on the line, so as a goaltender you have to keep playing your game and hope you get a break. And we did.”
- “I definitely felt a little more comfortable and in control. I controlled more rebounds that game.”
Rangers forward Carl Hagelin
- “They worked hard and got a couple of lucky bounces. Last game they may have been the better team and we won. Tonight we were the better team and they won.”
Rangers defenseman Ryan McDonagh
- “It’s a tough bounce but I like the way we kept going and found a way to tie the game. Ultimately it doesn’t mean anything when you come out losing like that in overtime. It’s tough right now.”
- “It’s going to be tough for a couple of hours, but then you have to let [the loss] go,” Lundqvist said. “That’s part of playing in the playoffs, short memory, and win or lose you have to move on. We did so many good things, but it’s about winning, finding ways to win games.””
- “Obviously we came back,” Lundqvist said, “then it’s just tough luck on that goal.”
Rangers head coach Alain Vigneault
- “Yeah we looked at [the hit by Brandon Prust on Derek Stepan.] The refs missed it.”
- “[Daniel Carcillo] can’t do, obviously, what he did there. We’ll let the league handle that. I believe if a penalty would have been called on Prust, it probably wouldn’t have happened, but there is nothing we can do about it.”
- “I didn’t think that Dan (Carcillo) deserved to get a penalty on that. [Derek Dorsett] obviously felt that they went after one of our top players and he wanted to do something about it.”
- “I thought we played a good game. We had some real good looks. We had opportunities to take the lead in the game and we didn’t.”
- “Give credit to them. Their team played hard and their goaltender played well.”
- “I think that the series has been intense. We battled real hard in both games in Montreal.”
- “It was a hard fought game. The next one is going to be the same.”
To look back at the full lineups for tonight’s game, check the Game Day preview.
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