CANADIENS
Montreal

STARS
Dallas

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings: 

[one_half]Pacioretty- Galchenyuk – Andrighetto
Matteau – Plekanec – Byron
De la Rose – McCarron – Mitchell
Lessio – Danault – Brown[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Markov- Subban
Emelin – Pateryn
Bartley – Barberio
[/one_half_last]

Goaltenders:

Scrivens
Condon

Scratches:  Lars Eller (lower-body), Brendan Gallagher (lower-body)
Injured reserve:  Carey Price, Daniel Carr, Brian Flynn, Jeff Petry, David Desharnais, Tom Gilbert, Nathan Beaulieu

Game Report

As overtime began on Tuesday night at the Bell Centre, Dallas coach Lindy Ruff sent out his top three offensive players in Tyler Seguin, Jamie Benn and Alex Goligoski. Michel Therrien took a more defensive approach countering with Tomas Plekanec, Paul Byron and P.K. Subban.

Seguin won the faceoff to start the period of 3-on-3 but the snipers in green failed to get a shot on goal. After replacing Byron, Max Pacioretty got the first chance with a 40-foot snap shot turned aside by Kari Lehtonen. Alex Galchenyuk took Plekanec’s spot at centre and Andrei Markov jumped on the ice in place of Subban.

Yes, Andrei Markov. Immediately Habs fans took to social media to criticize the Canadiens 37-year old defenceman. As usual. ‘Too slow..’ ‘Too old..’  The same usual nonsense.

Sven Andrighetto now had possession of the puck having taken over from Pacioretty.  From the blueline, Andrighetto fed Galchenyuk, parked at the faceoff circle on his off-wing, for a one-timer. Markov was screening in front. The shot was blocked by Stars defenceman Kris Russell, breaking his stick in the process.

Galchenyuk retrieved the puck maintaining possession then put it back to Andrighetto. Smartly Andrighetto slowed the play down taking the puck to the circle to the right of Lehtonen. It allowed Markov to slide back to the point and Galchenyuk to re-establish himself in the circle opposite Andrighetto.

Markov curled in from the point drawing Ales Hemsky to him and the attention of Cody Eakin.  Knowing the the stickless Russell was left to cover Galchenyuk,  Andrei fed a perfect pass to Alex who unleashed a wicked one-timer.

Galchenyuk won the game on his second goal of the night. Adding an assist, there was no question that he had fully earned the first star honours.

But it has to be said that no one on the Canadiens, other than Markov, makes that pass. No one. The defenders knew that the Habs wanted to get the puck to Galchenyuk. In goal, Lehtonen knew what was coming. And yet, the Habs scored anyway.

Credit Galchenyuk for the velocity of the shot. But the architect of the play was Andrei Markov. No one reads the ice the way he does. Markov is quietly having a strong season, just five points back of Galchenyuk.

The Canadiens host the Buffalo Sabres at the Bell Centre on Thursday.

~~~

▲     Alex Galchenyuk, Sven Andrighetto, Andrei Markov, Max Pacioretty, Greg Pateryn, Tomas Plekanec, Mike Brown, Phillip Danault

▼     Victor Bartley, Mark Barberio

1. Alex Galchenyuk  MTL
2. Cody Eakin  DAL
3. Greg Pateryn  MTL

• “[Alex Galchenyuk] is a different player than the one he was at the start of the season. You want to give your players chances, but you don’t want them to forget who they are. That’s why we put him on the wing for awhile — so he could find his game again. We knew he would play center eventually. Often things come down to a question of timing, and right now the timing — and the performances — are good. I don’t regret waiting because it was important for him to grow into the role.”
• “He’s been playing with a lot of confidence since a month ago, and we felt like he was confident enough to test at center again. We didn’t want him to lose his offensive instincts. He’s playing well on both sides of the ice right now, and he’s proving that he’s capable of doing so. We’ve seen some positive flashes in the past, but now we’re seeing the steady quality of play we’ve been looking for.”

Max Pacioretty

• “[Alex Galchenyuk] is hot, he’s so hot, everything he’s shooting is going in but it’s a mindset, and it’s always been. It’s more of a mindset than anything, and I really like his patience with the puck. And I think it’s opened up a lot of opportunities for other players, and I really like that he’s shooting the puck.“

Alex Galchenyuk

• “I think I practice that shot every practice, and it was a good coincidence that it was me and [Andrei Markov] that practiced that in Brossard today. I was waiting for that pass and the puck was bouncing a little bit and it settled down and I put it right in a good spot and it was an easy shot to take.”
• “We tried [pairing myself with Max Pacioretty] a couple of times before, but this time I wanted to make sure we got things going. He’s without a doubt the best winger on our team, and I see no reason why we shouldn’t click. I’m just trying to adjust my game and he’s still adjusting his, but he’s so fast and powerful with such a great release, that we’ve got to go out there and make it work.”

Stars coach Lindy Ruff

• “Not good, not good, not good. It’s going to be a good period of time. I doubt if [Jason Demers] will play the rest of the season.”
• “We lost a defenseman, we were down to five and with three of our starters out I thought we played a pretty good third period, we had a couple of good opportunities. A broken stick in overtime, which hurt us.”

Quotes courtesy of NHL.com