Ann 2Game 66 Review: Canadiens Survive Stars' Early Onslaught To Win 3-1 (Video Included)
March 16th 2009 03:27
Price stares at Neale
After two embarrassing defeats at the hands of teams sitting behind them in the standings, the Montreal Canadiens landed in Dallas with one foot out of the playoff picture. Their precarious position in standings didn't necessarily mean that they had to defeat the Stars, but a road victory could definitely alleviate the pressure before coming back home.
From the opening faceoff, it looked like the Canadiens would have another long night on the ice. Every single Canadiens shift was spent in their own end, trying to keep Dallas away from Carey Price's net. After ten minutes of play, Montreal already had four minor penalties (two in the first five minutes), meaning they had spent only five minutes at even-strength, and had conceded one goal on the Stars' second powerplay. Meanwhile, Dallas grinder Steve Ott was driving Montreal players crazy with relentless hits along the boards. What made it more infuriating was that he refused to drop the gloves because he suffered from a fractured hand. It's easy to run around hitting players when you don't have to answer for your actions. The Canadiens tried to get him back, but every time they hit him, it was always a white jersey who ended up on the ice. Finally, at the end of the period, youngster Gregory Stewart took matters into his own hands by hitting the Stars' pest in open ice and dropping him with some punches to the face.
Stewart's actions were admirable but the end result was that the Canadiens would start the second period short-handed by two men for at least five minutes after both Kovalev and Koivu picked penalties at the end of the first. Just to give you an idea of how bad the visitors were in those opening twenty minutes, Marty Turco saw rubber only three times in this period and could very well have brought his newspaper.
Surprisingly, the Canadiens survived both of the Stars' 5-on-3s thanks to some excellent work by Tomas Plekanec at the start of the second period. In what was probably his first real shift of the game, Andrei Kostitsyn equalized the mark at 1-1. Ten minutes later, Alex Kovalev gave the lead to Montreal at the end of a powerplay, and the Canadiens were now leading a game they had no business being in in the first place. Christopher Higgins made it 3-1 early in the third a gift from Turco, and from then on the Canadiens could breathe a bit. Sure, they complicated the story by taking two more penalties in the final minutes of the game, but the penalty-kill did another terrific job and the Canadiens returned to Montreal with two more points in the bank.
The momentum of the game really shifted once the Canadiens killed the Stars' double 5-on-3. You cannot have a 5-on-3, let alone two, and not score once. That is what killed Dallas. The separation of Kovalev and Kostitsyn brought some dividends to the table as both players scored in the same game. When paired with Kovalev, Kostitsyn had something like three or six points in 19 games while he had 29 points in 29 games when paired with anyone else. Everyone following the Habs knew that those two couldn't stay together anymore, it's shocking that Carbonneau waited this long to separate them. As for Kovalev, well, he was Kovalev. He took one selfish penalty at the end of the first period but then came back with the winning goal that is what the Artist is all about. You take the good with the bad and hope the good outweighs the bad in the big picture.
My 3 Stars:
3. Steve Ott
2. Tomas Plekanec
1. Carey Price
It's probably the first time I picked players who didn't show up on the scoresheet but it's those three players that made the game what it was in my opinion. Steve Ott was annoying and effective, Tomas Plekanec had a near-perfect game, and Carey Price stopped the puck from going in.
| 52 |
| Vote |
Add To: 
subscribe to this blog
