RECAP | Islanders – Canadiens: Price, Armia, Weal Star in Impressive Win for Habs

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Rick Stephens
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New York Islanders vs Montreal Canadiens Game Recap: Line-up, Score, Statistics, Highlights, Post-game, Three-Stars

FINAL | Game 74, Home Game 37 | Thursday March 21, 2019
Bell Centre, Montreal, QC

CANADIENS

Montreal

4-0

ISLANDERS

New York

Canadiens Lineup

Forward lines

Tomas Tatar – Phillip Danault – Brendan Gallagher

Artturi Lehkonen – Max Domi – Andrew Shaw

Jonathan Drouin – Jesperi Kotkaniemi – Joel Armia

Paul Byron – Nate Thompson – Jordan Weal

Defense pairings

Victor Mete – Shea Weber

Brett Kulak – Jeff Petry

Jordie Benn – Christian Folin

Goaltenders

Carey Price – Antti Niemi

Scratches

Charles Hudon, Nicolas Deslauriers, Dale Weise, Matthew Peca, Mike Reilly, Charlie Lindgren

Injuries

none

Game Report

It was a night that included some unlikely heroes at the Bell Centre. And featured outstanding performances from two veteran Canadiens’ leaders.

The NHL’s bottom-ranked power-play scored with just 6.3 seconds left in the first period. It was the first power-play goal, ever, for Joel Armia. The last minute marker propelled the Canadiens to the second period where they scored three more against Islanders starter Thomas Greiss. 

Shea Weber blasted a rocket from the point after Artturi Lehkonen had put the Isles on their heels. Jonathan Drouin scored his first goal since February 7th. And Jordan Weal redirected Jordie Benn’s point shot.

Three of the four Canadiens goals were scored by the bottom six. Weal’s second goal as a Canadien completed the scoring and chased Greiss. Robin Lehner guarded the Islanders goal for the remaining period and a half.

Carey Price was brilliant in earning his fourth shutout of the season. Price’s highlight reel save against Jordan Eberle was a game saver with the Habs third goal coming seconds later. Price now has 44 career shutouts, just two back of Ken Dryden for third place overall with the franchise.

Price along with Lehkonen and Nate Thompson did an exceptional job on the Montreal penalty-kill including being two men short for 21 seconds in the opening frame.

After the loss to the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday, the Canadiens chances of making the playoffs were down to 18.8 percent as calculated by Sports Club Stats. Following two consecutive wins over the Flyers and Islanders, the Habs have renewed life with a 50.9 percent chance of seeing the post-season.

Plus / Minus

▲  Carey Price, Joel Armia, Jordan Weal, Nate Thompson, Artturi Lehkonen

▼  Andrew Shaw, Max Domi, Christian Folin

The Numbers

 Game Statistics 
CANADIENS   ISLANDERS
34 Shots 28
65 Face-off % 35
1-for-2 Power Play 0-for-3
11 Penalty Minutes 19
36 Hits 38
47 Corsi For 56
 Scoring Summary
 FINAL 1 2 3 OT SO T
 Canadiens (39-28-7) 1 3 0 – – 4
 Islanders (42-25-7) 0 0 0 – – 0
Scorers Goalies
  • MTL: Armia (11)-PPG, Weber (13), Drouin (18), Weal (6)
  • NYI: no scoring
  • MTL: Price (W) 31-22-5
  • NYI: Greiss (L) 22-13-2, Lehner

Stars of the Game

 NHL Official Three Stars
NHL3stars
  1. Joel Armia  MTL
  2. Jordan Weal  MTL
  3. Carey Price  MTL

Watch

 Video Highlights 

What Did They Say?

 Post-game Quotes
Claude Julien  

 

  • “I found our penalty kill on the two penalties at the start of the game did a really good job. It took the wind out of their sails. We came back with energy and our power play score a big goal.”

Carey Price

  • “We’re playing as a pretty good group. We’re using our assets like we should be. If we keep doing that, I’m pretty sure we’re going to be successful for the rest of the season. We’re a tough team to play against when we play like that.”

Shea Weber

  • “We just need to keep playing the way we did the last couple of games, not think too much. Hopefully, we can keep this confidence going here.”
  • “We’ve got a long way to go, a lot of work left to do, but all we can do is focus on the next game and doing the same thing we did tonight.”

Nate Thompson

  • “That was one good shift, one of my better P.K. shifts I’ve have had. I wish would have scored on that one.”
  • “But I thought everyone did a great job, especially Pricey: he was big back there, as usual. We wanted to make sure we got up ice and we disrupted their breakout. I thought we did a really good job of that tonight.”

Quotes courtesy of NHL.com

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