CANADIENS
Montreal

RANGERS
New York

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings 

[one_half]Pacioretty – Danault – Radulov
Byron – Plekanec – Gallagher
Lehkonen – Galchenyuk – Shaw
King – Ott – Mitchell
[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Markov – Weber
Benn – Petry
Beaulieu – Davidson
[/one_half_last]

Goaltenders

Price
Montoya

Scratches

Brian Flynn, Michael McCarron, Andreas Martinsen, Alexei Emelin, Nikita Nesterov

Injured Reserve

Game Report

The perfect road game. It was how Carey Price described the performance. If such a thing exists, the Montreal Canadiens came very close to playing one at Madison Square Garden.

The Habs dominated at even strength, won the special teams battle and were superior in goal. And perhaps the most-telling statistic: the Canadiens forced 21 New York turnovers.

The Rangers didn’t play well and the fans at MSG let them know it. On the other hand, the Canadiens got superb efforts from three players who were not on the team last season: their outstanding rookie, a prized free agent and one of the league’s top defenceman who was not universally embraced by the Montreal fanbase.

Artturi Lehkonen hasn’t let the big stage phase him one bit. Lehkonen finished the perfect execution of a set play with Tomas Plekanec and Brendan Gallagher. The power-play goal opened the scoring, providing the Habs with a lead before the end of the second period.

Alexander Radulov continued his magic with sublime pass to Alex Galchenyuk who, in turn, set up Shea Weber for the Canadiens second goal. Radulov then topped off his night with the goal of the playoffs so far. With one hand on his stick and a defender draped all over him, Radulov manipulated the puck past Henrik Lundqvist.

Shea Weber scored his first goal of the playoffs on the power-play. It turned out to be the game-winner. Weber was huge in his own end playing more than 29 minutes and dishing out four hits.

Adding to the trio above was a superb game from Carey Price, Alex Galchenyuk raising the level of his play and a much better effort from the fourth line (with the addition of Torrey Mitchell.) Tomas Plekanec and co. continues their strong play in the playoffs.

On defence, Nathan Beaulieu continues to struggle. Brandon Davidson was marginally better than Nikita Nesterov but only played nine minutes. The Canadiens are really missing Alexei Emelin but it seems that he is at least a week away.

Montreal has restored home ice advantage and will be looking to take a commanding lead in the series on Tuesday.

~~~

▲     Carey Price, Shea Weber, Alexander Radulov, Artturi Lehkonen, Torrey Mitchell

▼     Nathan Beaulieu

1.  Carey Price  MTL
2.  Artturi Lehkonen  MTL
3. Alexander Radulov  MTL

• “I thought it was a really good road game. It wasn’t mistake free, but no games are. I thought our guys were really focused from start to finish. I thought we did a good job defensively and offensively, and our special teams were very good tonight too. Power play goals — we scored a couple of those — but our penalty kill units did a great job as well. We had a solid performance from all of our guys. To win in the playoffs, you can’t afford any weak links at any time.”

Carey Price

• “It’s an ideal road game for sure. I thought we played pretty tight, and as a unit. We played with a lot of confidence.”

Artturi Lehkonen

• “It was a great boost, for sure. We really needed that first win at home, and when you see those goals that Pleky and Radu scored [on Friday], it gets you pumped. Every game is a different story — we had a good one tonight, but now we’ve got to build off it and focus on the next one.”

Alexander Radulov

• “It’s a best of seven series — the first to four games. We can enjoy the moment tonight, but then get ready for the next one. Nothing’s done yet, so we have to prepare. The next game is going to be huge. They’re going to come out hard again so we have to play the same way, but with even more effort — play good as a team.”

Quotes courtesy of NHL.com