Lineup scratches: Greg Pateryn, Jiri Sekac, Sergei Gonchar (upper-body)
Game Notes:
Just one play. With 3:19 left in the third period, David Desharnais lost a neutral zone faceoff to Pavel Datsyuk. Gustav Nyquist spun away from the backchecking of Andrei Markov and fired the puck. Carey Price made a big save. Just 2:49 remained in the third period.
With Price shutting down the Red Wings, the Canadiens needed just one play. And they got it just a few seconds later.
Max Pacioretty broke up the right wing and fired a shot on Wings goaltender Jimmy Howard. A big rebound when out the opposite side to Dale Weise near the blue line. With a nifty pass, he banked the puck off the boards to a streaking Tomas Plekanec who had just jumped on the ice for David Desharnais. Plekanec fired a shot from between the circles past Howard on the blocker side scoring the game-winner with just 2:30 left.
Wings dominate, Price leads. Those 50 seconds were a bit of a microcosm of the game. The Red Wings had dominated at the faceoff dot and in puck possession particularly for final 40 minutes. Price had been perfect not only in manning the crease but in moving the puck out of the zone and bringing a calm, confident presence to his team.
Good work but good fortune too. Weise, who had struggled all game long made a smart play banging the puck off the boards past himself. And it was Plekanec on the ice as Desharnais was the first on the line to change. Plekanec’s shot beat Howard but safe to assume Desharnais’ would not have.
Stepping up. Just one Habs trio established possession for significant stretches in the Detroit zone: Jacob De La Rose’s line with Lars Eller and Brandon Prust. The line had eight of 13 hits by Canadiens forwards.
Dynamic duo. Andrei Markov has consistently been the Canadiens best defenseman all season long. He was very good again in this game. And P.K. Subban has picked up his game since the All-Star break to form one of the best top defensive duos in the league. Tom Gilbert has also been good of late. Tonight Gilbert led the team with five blocked shots and had three of seven hits by the defense corps.
Lock on Hart. At the start of the game on the Sportsnet broadcast, a graphic was presented showing the Canadiens holding the league’s best road record, an impressive 16-8-1 (now 17 wins.) Yet, the Habs are 29th in the league in goals scored on the road. The team can thank Carey Price for their success on the road. Coming into this game, Price was 16-3-1 in his last 20 starts with a 1.48 GAA, a .950 Sv% and two shutouts.
Historic blank. With his 30th career shutout against the Red Wings, Carey Price moved into fifth place on the Canadiens all-time shutout list bypassing Patrick Roy. Price earned his 30th shutout in his 414th game played. Roy had 29 shutouts in 551 games played. Price is the first Canadiens goaltender to post a shutout in Detroit since Michel “Bunny” Larocque on March 27, 1977.
Where’s the PP? Mickey Redmond, former winger for the Canadiens and RedWings, said on Fox Sports Detroit, “Imagine if the Canadiens had a power-play, they would be running away with this thing.”
Plus / Minus
▲ Carey Price, P.K. Subban, Andrei Markov, Jacob De La Rose, Tomas Plekanec, Tom Gilbert
▼ Michael Bournival, David Desharnais, Alex Galchenyuk, Manny Malhotra |