CANADIENS
Montreal

FLAMES
Calgary

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings 

[one_half]Tatar – Danault – Gallagher
Drouin – Domi – Shaw
Agostino – Kotkaniemi – Lehkonen
Deslauriers – Peca – Hudon
[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Benn – Petry
Schlemko – Juulsen
Ouellet – Mete

[/one_half_last]

Goaltenders

Price
Niemi

Scratches

Reilly, Alzner

Injuries

Weber, Byron, Armia, Scherbak

Game Report 

The Montreal Canadiens had no business winning this hockey game.

The Habs had a decent road period for at least part of the first. They were disciplined, staying out of the penalty box and found themselves scoring the opening goal of the game. But following the goal, the Flames thoroughly dominated possession for the next 52 minutes and it wasn’t even close.

This game was all about goaltending, suspect play at one end of the ice and outstanding  netminding at the other. For Calgary, Mike Smith struggled, particularly on the Canadiens winning goal. “Bad goal, bad timing,” said Smith bluntly.

Carey Price was superb with a .956 save percentage, making 43 saves. Price seemed rather perplexed that the media was making so much of a “bounce-back” win.

For him, it was just more of the same from the Vezina-winning goaltender. While fans and media have grossly exaggerated and incorrectly analyzed his performances, Price simply needed to deal with getting thrown off his game by some ignorant inhabitants of the Bell Centre.

Price has been technically sound all season. The goaltender, his goalie coach and educated observers are in full agreement about that.

Whether the Habs deserved the win or not, the hockey gods intervened allowing the second worst third period team to score twice on the league’s best third period team.

Now that the histrionics surrounding the franchise goaltender can be set aside, perhaps the focus can now switch to where it truly belongs: the Canadiens defensive play. That includes the abundance of 6/7 defencemen (Mike Reilly, Victor Mete, Xavier Ouellet, Jordie Benn, Karl Alzner, David Schlemko) on the roster as well as the poor defensive play of too many forwards (Charles Hudon, Andrew Shaw, Kenny Agostino, Phillip Danault, Mike Peca, Jonathan Drouin, Max Domi).

That’s on both Marc Bergevin and Claude Julien.

===

▲ ▲ Carey Price

▲  Artturi Lehkonen

▼  Jordie Benn, Charles Hudon, Matthew Peca, Nicolas Deslauriers, Mike Reilly, Victor Mete, Xavier Ouellet

1. Carey Price  MTL
2. Matthew Tkachuk  CGY
3. Artturi Lehkonen  MTL

• “Carey stood tall in net and gave us a chance after two periods to still be in the game.”

Brendan Gallagher

• “He’s got his reputation as Carey Price, the best goalie in the world, for a reason and we have that confidence playing in front of him and I don’t think anyone was ever worried.”

Artturi Lehkonen

• “He’s the best goalie in the world. He was outstanding in the net. He was a big key as to why we won.”

Quotes courtesy of NHL.com