Christopher Higgins made a comment a while back, before being injured, about the offensive production of some players like Kovalev. He said that those players had most of their point on the powerplay and when the powerplay would start working again, players like Kovalev would score again. It may be a coincidence but I think Higgins might be onto something.
The formidable Russian was having a good game in the first two periods. He was working well and seemed to have some of his old flair back. Actually, since his lucky goal against Carolina he looked a lot more relaxed, probably happy not to have to answer to the same question from the ever persistent Montreal media: when are you going to score again? Every game if needed it seems. But back to this game, he was having a solid, if unspectacular game. That was before he took a penalty for holding the stick as the Habs were playing 4 on 4. Buffalo took the opportunity and scored.
But there is nothing I love more than to see Kovy pissed. He took matters in his own hands right after that. With five minutes to go, Kovalev worked hard in the corner to recover a puck Plekanec lost on the faceoff, came out of the corner leaving two Sabres wondering what just happened and sent the puck to Sergei Kostitsyn who barely had a tap in for the tying goal. In overtime, he forced Sekera to trip him to avoid letting him alone in front of Miller. That powerplay didn’t score but that was simply a matter of time. Guillaume Latendresse then forced another penalty through hard work, the second of the overtime, and Kovalev scored with his patented shot top corner short side from the face off circle. Finally, the clutch player woke up.
He wasn’t the only player to have a strong game. Sergei Kostitsyn, for one, scored twice. On the pass from Kovalev to tie the game late in third period and also in second period, on the powerplay, to make the score 1-1. His work on the point may not be perfect but he seems to be the most efficient option right now.
But the player who played the most “over his usual level” was Georges Laraque. He was involved in a fight early with Andrew Peters early in the game. That was one of the best moment of the season with Laraque smiling ear to ear from beginning to end while Peters looked like he barely wanted to make it out of it alive. At one point the Buffalo player even dropped down to his knees only to be helped back up by Big G who wasn’t throwing punches… he was waiting for his opponent to be standing before, so he could knock him down again. He was also screening the goalie on Hamerlik shot which was deflected by Tanguay. He was also gorgeous to watch when he was holding the puck behind the net for about ten seconds while surrounded by three white shirts.
Patrice Brisebois, however, didn’t have such a good game. He was semi-responsible for the two first Buffalo goals. On the first one, Derek Roy used him as a screen to beat Halak top corner with a laser shot. Then on penalty killing he left MacArthur alone in front of the net and he only had to deflect the puck behind Halak.
Speaking of him, Halak couldn’t really be blamed for the three goals he allowed but still looked shaky with his rebound control in the first two periods. He looked a lot better in third but it was nothing compared to Miller. The Sabres superstar goaltender was solid and gave his team a chance to win. Without him, the game wasn’t even going into overtime.
All in all a pretty good effort by the Habs in the first game of the weekend. Not as pretty as the Philadelphia game but still more consistent than they have been in November and early December. For the second game in a row the powerplay scored twice. The leaders finally get the job done. Now they have a a revenge to take on Carolina in less than 24 hours.
Let’s see how the Habs respond to the challenge.