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Game 15: Canadiens vs Bruins AKA Last Shot Wins |
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Tonight, Claude Julien was coaching his 1200th game in the NHL and Zdeno Chara was playing his 1500th match. Much like the Coyotes did when they congratulated Gallagher on his 500 games milestone, the Canadiens did acknowledge Chara's feat and amazingly enough, the Bell Centre crowd cheered. I guess even if the Habs faithful hate a player, they know their hockey and they can recognize game. Even Chara looked amazed at the crowd's reaction:
Now on to the hockey! Not even 2 minutes in, Victor Mete scored on a Tuukka Rask that was in for a long night... It might have taken Mete 126 matchs to score his first goal but by the end of the night he had his 3rd in 9 games. It was only a matter of time apparently. That being said, Mete looked really good tonight and I do believe that the main reason for that is the fact that he was playing alongside Jeff Petry and not Shea Weber. Tonight, Weber was paired up with Ben Chiarot. Initially, I thought that might have been a disaster considering there wasn't much speed in that pairing and yet, they made it through the game quite well. They spent much of the game going up against the "perfect line" (Pastrnak-Bergeron-Marchand if I must remind you) and amazingly enough, the Bruins' top line ended the game with a -2.
Even though they were -2, Pastrnak did score Boston's power play goal in the 1st period after 5 seconds of power play time. That was a warning if ever there was one not to take penalties against the Bruins. Shortly thereafter though, Tatar gathered a Gallagher pass to put the Habs back on top 2-1 and before the period ended, Paul Byron finally scored his first of the season! Using his speed he avoided an offside and made Rask look like a fool. The relief on Byron's face was very nice to see. After 20 minutes, the Canadiens had 13 shots to the Bruins' 6 and lead 3-1.
The bear was awaken in the second frame however and the Bruins put up a much better fight. There were some very worrying moments in that period with Jeff Petry falling awkwardly on the ice and struggling to make it back to the bench and Ryan Poehling blocking a shot with his face before running down the locker room tunnel as well. Thankfully, both of them game back before the end of the period. At 18:13 in the 2nd, the Bruins had managed to level the score until Victor Mete score his second of the game 42 seconds later with just over a minute to go. So nice to see the Habs get a goal and not concede one in the dying moments of a period.
Quite early in the 3rd though, the Bruins' 4th line got them back on level terms on a shot which Carey Price should have had. To make matters worse though, the Bruins scored again to take the lead 5-4 but the replay gods were on the Habs side and the goal was ruled off because of an offside. More drama was to come though when Brendan Gallagher blocked a shot with his hand and charged for the locker room tunnel, looking clearly in pain and destroying his stick in the process. Much to everyone's relief, the Canadiens' biggest warrior was back in action a few minutes later. Ben Chiarot ended up having the last word in this insane affair when he scored the Habs' 5th goal and even though Boston did try and push for an equalizer at the end, it just wasn't to be.
It definitely wasn't a perfect game but man, was it ever entertaining! Of course, some will say that Price wasn't good but hey, neither was Rask... The RDS talking heads said that the Domi line didn't give enough but in the last few minutes of the game who was on the ice forechecking and dishing out bodychecks? That's right, Jonathan Drouin was...the Drouin nouveau really is something to behold! The Habs also managed to kill a penalty against the Bruins, it wasn't easy but they did and that is a pretty lethal man advantage unit. Finally, yes, they lost the lead a few times but hey, they got it back each time. At the end of the day, the Canadiens just got the two points against a divisional rival who just so happen to sit in 2nd place in the standings and that is quite the accomplishment. Sleep well Habs, I think this madness took a lot out of all of us!
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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