Game 69 Away game 34 | Sunday March 16, 2014 |
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Game Recap:With Carey Price in Montreal for treatment, Peter Budaj was expected to be in goal for the Canadiens. Instead it was Dustin Tokarski, called up from Hamilton, who got the start. The 24-year-old goalie earned his first NHL shutout making 29 saves. After taking an early lead the Habs had difficulty generating offense and went 0-for-3 on the power-play.
Plus / Minus ▲ Dustin Tokarski, Brendan Gallagher, Alexei Emelin, Jarred Tinordi, Thomas Plekanec ▼ |
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Boxscore:
| FINAL | 1 | 2 | 3 | OT | SO | T |
| Canadiens | 2 | 0 | 0 | – | – | 2 |
| Sabres | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | – | 0 |
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Shots on Goal:
| FINAL | 1 | 2 | 3 | OT | T |
| Canadiens | 13 | 13 | 6 | – | 32 |
| Sabres | 9 | 9 | 11 | – | 29 |
| NHL Three Stars | ||
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| Post-game Press Conference |
- “The kid (Dustin Tokarski) played well, he battles. He competes really hard, his technique is good and I certainly believe the team played a good game in front of him. But in the meantime, we had some breakdowns and he did some key saves.”
- That was an emotional game last night for us. Every time you play an emotional game as a coach you’re always afraid that the next game could be tougher but again we got a really good start.”
- “It’s just something that we’ve been doing lately, the first period we showed that we were ready, our problem was more in the second period but we maintained the pace, I believe.”
- “The decision was, we wanted to take a step back with Tinner (Jarred Tinordi) but we didn’t want to move him out for a long time. I had a good discussion with him. We gave him a chance to come back and I thought that he played really well.”
- “That’s the way we like to play on offense. We’re not a fancy team. We all understand that this time of year you’ve got to keep it simple, put pucks at the net and get the goals. Most of the time, this is how you’re going to score goals. We’ve been doing that. This is how we made the comeback yesterday (against the Senators) and we showed the guys how we score goals and tonight that was almost the same thing.“
- “I sent Stéphane Waite to talk to (Peter) Budaj to tell him that I was starting (Dustin) Tokarski.”
Forward Thomas Vanek
- “[The video tribute] was great. My previous experience when someone else came back, they didn’t do much, so I didn’t know what to expect. But I thought it was very nice and very classy of them.”
Forward Brendan Gallagher
- ”I think there are still areas to improve, but just getting back to the way we need to play to be successful. I thought we kept it simple. We didn’t do things that were going to hurt ourselves or give them too many chances. There are still other areas we have to clean up, but it’s a step in the right direction to getting back to playing the way we want to play.”
Goalie Dustin Tokarski
- “It felt pretty good, I’m not going to lie. The main thing is the two points going down the stretch for this hockey team. Just a little icing on the cake with the shootout, I guess.”
- “Every time I get a chance to go out there, I just have to do my best and try to help this team win. They’ve played great in both games I’ve been a part of.”
To look back at the full lineups for tonight’s game, check the Game Day preview.
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