Montreal 4 - New York Islanders 1
February 2, 2008
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The Canadiens jumped to a great start at home in Montreal tonight, controlling the flow of the first period by drawing several penalties, killing several penalties and blasting Islander’s goalie Rick Dipietro with shot after shot. The New York team worked with a bit of luck and a bit of stellar goaltending to keep the Habs off the board and the first period ended at a scoreless tie.
The second period opened on a strange note as the goaltenders were forced to switch ends quickly to play 11 seconds that were mistakenly missed on the official clock during the first. Those 11 seconds were uneventful but the Canadiens jumped to a 1-0 lead only seconds into the official second period as Alex Kovalev capitalized on a giveaway by Mike Comrie and dropped a clean pass to Tomas Plekanec who scored with a nice wrist shot, shorthanded at that. The Islanders were able to tie it up at one before Mark Streit struck on the powerplay on another beautiful pass, this time from Saku Koivu. Alex Kovalev added a goal of his own as he beat Dipietro through the 5-hole to end the period with a 3-1 lead for his Montreal Canadiens.
The Habs opened the third period on the penalty kill as Sergei Kostitsyn spent 1:51 in the box on a tripping penalty he took late in the second period but the Islanders were stumped by the Montreal defense and the solid goaltending of Christobal Huet. The Islanders still failed to control the flow but they did create far more chances in the last 20 minutes then the first 40; Huet continued to come up on the winning end of those shots though. After the Habs began to pour on the pressure Rick Dipietro continued to come up very big but was finally beaten by Mattieu Dandenault to put Montreal up 4-1 with only 2:25 left to play; the 4-1 score held up as the Habs grabbed another two points at home.
GAME NOTES: Despite the mostly good play of the team as a whole, Michael Ryder continued to flounder, giving up the puck nearly every time he fought for it and failing to capitalize on a couple of “sure things”. Being from Nova Scotia with a wife from Newfoundland, I try and give the guy the absolute benefit of the doubt, but it’s nearing playoff time and I personally think it’s time to admit that both the Habs and Ryder himself have nothing to lose in a trade.
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