Ann 2Game 56 Review: Canadiens Ride On Halak's 46-Save Effort To Defeat Avalanche 4-2 (Video Included)
February 19th 2009 00:30
Both teams were evenly matched in the first period. Perhaps they were simply studying each other. In any case, Montreal opened the scoring late in the first period with a goal by defenseman Francis Bouillon. One minute later, Patrice Brisebois added to Montreal's lead with a powerplay goal. It was the first time in what seems like forever that the Canadiens had scored the first goal of a game let alone ending the first period with a 2-0 advantage.
Unfortunately, the Habs returned to their nasty habit of falling back after having a lead. In the second period, they were limited to only four shots on goal while the Avlanche buzzed around Halak's net to find a breakthrough. The multiple and often consecutive icings by Montreal made Colorado's job even easier. Still, Halak stood tall. The Avs only beat him once during that period via Leopold who buried the puck in the net after a rebound.
The third period was more of the same Halak holding the fort while the Canadiens struggled to contain the Avalanche. On 19 shots in this period, Halak only conceded one. And even then, the goal was a case of bad luck as the puck deflected on Josh Gorges' body who's been deflecting a lot of pucks on front of his goaltender lately and trickled in between Halak's pads. At 2-2, I was expecting another collapse. Guy Carbonneau was probably praying for the game to go into overtime so his team could walk away with a point. The visitors looked completely lost in a fog with no way out. Then, with less than three minutes left to go, Andrei Kostitsyn, who had been completely invisble during the game, seized a lobbed pass by Mathieu Dandenault and beat Peter Budaj with a nice little move. The goal gave some breathing-room to the Canadiens who needed to relax after letting the Avs draw the score. After their opponent took the lead, Tony Granato took out Budaj in favor of a sixth skater. Once again, the Canadiens were hemmed in inside their zone. A penalty to Josh Gorges with a little bit over thirty seconds seemed to have made matters even more difficult. Fortunately, Saku Koivu won the faceoff and Kostopoulos managed to score in the empty net from the Canadiens' right faceoff circle.
So, Montreal avoided the worst. But then again, Colorado is currently the worst team of the Western Conference and it took all of Halak's poise for them to win the game. I don't see the light at the end of the tunnel just yet.
My 3 Stars:
3. Tyler Arnason
2. Patrice Brisebois
1. Jaroslav Halak
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