CANADIENS
Montreal

PENGUINS
Pittsburgh

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings 

[one_half]Byron – Drouin – Gallagher
Galchenyuk – De La Rose – Lehkonen
Scherbak – L. Shaw – Carr
Deslauriers – McCarron – Hudon
[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Reilly – Petry
Alzner – Juulsen
Benn – Lernout

[/one_half_last]

Goaltenders

Price
Niemi

Scratches

Byron Froese

Injuries

Ales Hemsky – concussion, Shea Weber – lower-body, Victor Mete – hand, Max Pacioretty – lower-body, David Schlemko – undisclosed, Rinat Valiev – lower-body, Phillip Danault – upper body, Andrew Shaw – upper-body

Game Report 

This was an odd game. 

Carey Price last appeared in the Canadiens lineup in Philadelphia on February 20th. Price missed 14 games before returning to the Montreal goal tonight in Pittsburgh.

Just 1:19 into the contest, Price faced his first shot on goal. It was a penalty shot by Derick Brassard. Welcome back Carey. Price made a blocker save.

Early in the second period, a second penalty shot was called. This time, it was Brendan Gallagher with the honours. But once again, an unsuccessful penalty shot was recorded in the game summary.

A good portion of the second period was played with just three officials. Linesman Steve Miller was cut on his hand as Charles Hudon was going to the bench. After six stitches, Miller returned to the game for the third period.

Nikita Scherbak found himself alone with the puck as he was headed to the Canadiens bench for a change. Smartly taking advantage of the opportunity, Scherbak went on to score a highlight reel shorthanded goal. With the assist, Brett Lernout notched his first NHL point.

Six minutes later, Jacob De La Rose tracked an infield fly, a rebound off Penguins goaltender Casey De Smith, batting the puck into the net when it returned to the ice.

Not to be outdone, Sidney Crosby performed a bit of magic himself, twice tapping a puck mid-air guiding it into the goal.

What was not magical in any respect was the Canadiens penalty-kill with the Penguins scoring twice on three power-play opportunities. 

Carey Price didn’t look to be suffering any rust from his long layoff. While some may quibble about the Pens fifth goal, Jeff Petry and Mike Reilly gift-wrapped the chance for Jake Guentzel. And Price made a dozen saves that he had absolutely no business making against the likes of Derick Brassard, Patric Hornqvist, and Phil Kessel.

Price provided something we haven’t seen for a month. That is a goaltender who can move the puck helping out the Canadiens defenders.

Another road loss in a season where the Canadiens have been horrible on the road. While the game remained close, there was no question about who the better team was on this night.

===

▲  Carey Price, Jacob De La Rose, Nikita Scherbak, Brett Lernout, Jordie Benn

▼  Jeff Petry, Mike Reilly, Nicolas Deslauriers, Logan Shaw, Karl Alzner

1. Jake Guentzel  PIT
2. Sidney Crosby  PIT
3. Derick Brassard  PIT

• “There’s no doubt you want to stay out of the penalty box. At the same time, we have to do a better job. That’s been our issue for most of the year. We have chances to clear the puck and we don’t. When you’re against the power play, it ends up in the back of your net.”

Carey Price

• “I felt pretty good. Pretty good team to go against and I thought we played a pretty good game tonight. … They got a lot of weapons on the power play and they seem to be able to find the holes. That’s what a good power play does.”

Brendan Gallagher

• “The chances were there on both sides — [Carey Price] made some big saves and their goalie made some big saves, too. They just came out in the third and were able to find a couple [of goals], while we weren’t. It’s not always easy, but these are the kind of games you have to find a way to win. It hasn’t really happened much this year, so hopefully it’s something we get better at.”

Quotes courtesy of NHL.com