CANADIENS
Montreal

AVALANCHE
Colorado

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings 

[one_half]Pacioretty – Plekanec – Radulov
Lehkonen – Danault – Shaw
Byron – Mitchell – Gallagher
Carr – Flynn – Andrighetto
[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Emelin – Weber
Markov – Petry
Beaulieu – Redmond
[/one_half_last]

Goaltenders

Price
Montoya

Scratches

Michael McCarron, Mark Barberio

Injured Reserve

Alex Galchenyuk (knee), David Desharnais (knee), Greg Pateryn (ankle) 

Game Report

Just how quickly and completely did the Canadiens dominate the Avalanche?

The first period was not yet half over and the Bell Centre faithful were singing the Ole chant.  Le Cage was already on the hook for free wings. The Habs were already lighting up the second Avalanche goaltender of the night.

In the first 8:41 of the game, Montreal had scored five even strength goals. Shots on goal were 13-1 for the Habs. Max Pacioretty already had two goals on his way to four.

 The first period ended 6-1 with the Avalanche spoiling Carey Price’s shutout with just 13 seconds remaining in the frame.

Before the second period was over, Pacioretty would have his hat trick. And with just 0.1 seconds left in the middle frame, the Canadiens would get their only power-play goal of the night off the stick of Jeff Petry. It was 9-1.

Calvin Pickard, the Avalanche starting goaltender returned to the crease to start the third period after Semyon Varlamov had played just under 33 minutes. Mercifully, the Canadiens would score just once more with Pacioretty getting his fourth of the night.

Since Carey Price delivered his ‘statement’ to the league, the Canadiens have outshot their opponents 74-29 and outscored them 13-2.

Contrary to what some believe, Alexei Emelin was not issuing a statement near the end of the game. Emelin was merely playing hockey when he delivered a clean hip check to  Joe Colborne. No tears necessary for the 6-foot-5-inch, 221 pound Avalanche forward.

 This game was about the team at the top of the NHL standings dominating the 30th place team. And bringing back some confidence to the Canadiens before the competition gets stiffer in the coming weeks.

~~~

▲     Max Pacioretty, Tomas Plekanec, Artturi Lehkonen, Andrei Markov, Jeff Petry, Brian Flynn, Alexander Radulov, Sven Andrighetto, Daniel Carr

▼     

1.  Max Pacioretty  MTL
2.  Tomas Plekanec  MTL
3.  Brian Flynn  MTL

• “[Alexei Emelin] has got one way to play a game. He’s playing hard.”

Max Pacioretty

• “We came out with a lot of jump, but it wasn’t easy early — definitely not. The scoreboard might have suggested that, but it was through hard work and our depth.”
• “When you’re up like that, you’re just trying to play for your goalie. We wanted to make sure that we limited their chances as the game went on, and the easiest way to do that was by playing offense.”

Brian Flynn

• “Obviously we’re playing really well. We’ve been playing really well 5-on-5. We got a few early, then the fourth line got to roll a little bit more — get into rhythm, get some more ice time — so it was a great game for us.”

Quotes courtesy of NHL.com