Hurricanes vs Canadiens Recap: Habs Special Teams, Price Strong in Win over Canes

Rick Stephens

April 2, 2013

MONTREAL CANADIENS 23-7-5 51 POINTS 2nd in the East	CAROLINA HURRICANES 16-16-2 34 POINTS 10th in the East

4	1

Top Scorers:

CANADIENS		HURRICANES
	Max Pacioretty 2G 5SOG +2 Andrei Markov 1G 2BS Jeff Halpern 1G 50FO%		Jordan Staal 1G Patrick Dwyer 1A Brett Bellemore 1A

Scoring Summary:

Shots on Goal:

Goaltending:

CANADIENS		HURRICANES
Carey Price WIN	Record: 18-6-4 SA: 19 Sv%: .947	Justin Peters LOSS	Record: 3-5-0 SA : 28 Sv%: .893

Lineup Notes:

Habs starting six: Tomas Plekanec, Michael Ryder, Brian Gionta, Josh Gorges, P.K. Subban, Carey Price
Scratched: Tomas Kaberle, Mike Blunden, Yannick Weber
It was the 300th career game for Carey Price.
Prior to the game, P.K. Subban was presented with the Molson Cup for March.

What you need to know:

Much of the talk post-game was about the Canadiens penalty-kill. They were perfect on five Carolina power-play opportunities. While it’s good news for a PK squad that has struggled, it should be noted that the Hurricanes are 30th in the league on the power-play.
With a good proportion of the play in the defensive zone in the first period, it was Carey Price who kept the Habs in the game early on. Price was named the game’s third star.
It was another good game for Brendan Gallagher who deserved better linemates most of the game. It was Gallagher’s determined board work that led to the Canadiens first goal.
Max Pacioretty broke his five-game scoring slump midway through the third period. Pacioretty added an empty-net goal.
P.K. Subban had a strong game with almost 25 minutes in ice-time but took a couple of ill-advised penalties.
Alex Galchenyuk got caught watching the puck, missing his coverage on Jordan Staal in the first period. The younger Staal opened the scoring. Punished for the goal, Galchenyuk only played 7:57.
Andrei Markov scored his seventh goal of the season; all of them coming on the power-play.
Jeff Halpern has reinvigorated the Canadiens fourth-line — particularly the play of Travis Moen — and brought stability to the penalty-kill.
In his second NHL game, Nathan Beaulieu registered his first NHL point, an assist on Jeff Halpern’s goal.

Injury/Roster Report:

Colby Armstrong left the game with an apparent injury to his right leg after an accidental collision with Carolina’s Patrick Dwyer.
Tuesday is a travel day for the Canadiens. They will depart for Philadelphia and will not practise.

NHL Three Stars
	Jeff Halpern Andrei Markov Carey Price

Post-game Chatter

Coach Michel Therrien:

“Carey [Price] made some key saves. We only allowed 19 shots, but there were some quality scoring chances. Carey was really good again tonight.”
“Jeff Halpern has a lot of experience, wins a lot of faceoffs. He did a great job killing penalties.”
“Brandon Prust has been back the last two games. He has an important role to kill penalties and has a lot of courage to block shots.”
“We approached the group of guys that kill penalties about 10 days ago. That was an aspect of our game that we were not pleased with. We had good meetings, guys know their responsibilities and right now they’re doing a good job. They are battling hard, in the shooting lanes and they pay attention to detail. That makes a big difference.”

Josh Gorges:

“It’s something we’ve tried to put more focus on the last couple of weeks, is taking more pride in our penalty kill. It’s something that will be big the rest of the season and come playoff time it can win or lose you games, so we’re trying to be a little more aggressive, be a little harder to try and get our numbers up a little bit more.”

Hurricanes forward Eric Staal:

“It’s a difference-maker this time of year. They scored and we didn’t. It’s got to be better.”

Hurricanes forward Jordan Staal:

“That third goal took the wind out of our sails. It’s tough to get two goals quick against a team like that.”

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