The first period really wasn't pretty, from time to time it looked like the Habs who faltered in front of New Jersey earlier this week. Thankfully though, Carey Price was dialled in and made 9 saves but was beaten on a Namestnikov deflection to give the Rangers the lead. After a few difficult games, it was nice to see Shea Weber have a pretty good first 20 minutes, out of the Habs' 11 shots, 5 came from the captain and 3 from Artturi Lehkonen. The 4th line winger tried his best in front of the net to finally score a goal but he's no Brendan Gallagher or Andrew Shaw.
Speaking of Gallagher, who else could tie up the score for the Sainte-Flanelle in the 2nd? Jordie Benn cleared the puck which was picked-up by Tomas Tatar who wired the puck to Gallagher in front of the net before he deflected it perfectly behind Henrik Lundqvist. The tie lasted for about 7 minutes until an unusual suspect made it 2-1 thanks to a weird bounce off the boards. Joel Armia was in the right place at the right time and only had to lift the puck over the Rangers' goalie to give the Habs the lead. That kind of felt like poetic justice after last Saturday's bounce in favour of the Leafs.
At the end of the second, the Canadiens lead 2-1 and had 29 shots to the Rags' 21 while also leading in the face-off department with a 63% success rate.
The last period was also in the Habs' favour and Armia ended up scoring 2 more goals (1 in the empty net) to complete his first career hat-trick. After Gallagher and Shaw got theirs in the last week or so, you've got to wonder who's next! New York did score a second goal to make it 3-2 before Armia put the final nail in the Rags' coffin.
Once again tonight, the power play was kept off the scoresheet. They are trying to find solutions though, I mean tonight, Shea Weber wasn't on the 1st unit anymore....Domi, Shaw, Byron, Petry and Drouin (at the point) were. Weber was on the second unit alongside Mete, Gallagher, Tatar and Kotkaniemi...Who's missing? That's right Joel "I've never scored on the power play" Armia was taken off the man advantage units! Seems that's all he needed to start scoring at even strength though. Hopefully, they give those combinations a bit of time to gel and perhaps, just perhaps, the man advantage will in fact become an advantage.
Carey Price made 28 saves on 30 shots tonight for a save percentage of .933 earning himself the second star of the game (behind Armia of course). Tomorrow night, the Habs are taking on the Penguins who lost in OT today in yet another huge 4 points game and it didn't take long for journalists to ask Claude Julien if Price would be in net in his post game presser. As per usual, Julien refused to commit, saying they'd see tomorrow if Price was fresh and ready. When Price was asked, it was quite clear that if it was up to him, he'd be manning the net at the Bell Centre to face Crosby and co. Hopefully, Julien does make him play as you can bet the players would feel much more confident in front of number 31 than in front of Niemi.
As for the playoffs race, the Habs are still hanging on to the first wild card spot while Carolina's win tonight allowed them to move to 3rd in the Metropolitan division while the Blue Jackets fell to the 2nd wild card spot meaning that the Penguins are the outside team looking in. You can guarantee that the Pens will be ready for tomorrow's match-up with the Habs as every game is now do or die...
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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