Montreal 4 - Ottawa 3

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This was a very big game in terms of setting the scene for the days and weeks to come in the Eastern Conference and Montreal made a big statement to Ottawa with a regulation win that brings the Habs within a single point of the Senators for the number one spot.

The Habs were up 4-1 midway through the second period on two goals from Tomas Plekanec and one each from Andrei Kostitsyn and Mark Streit. The Senators made a game of it by scoring a couple of goals in the third to make things close but the Habs held on for a huge 4-3 victory.

The Canadiens will host the flopping Maple Leafs (they got pounded 8-0 tonight by Florida) on Thursday before taking a trip to Ottawa to face the Sens again.

New York Rangers 5 - Montreal 3

The Habs opened up this afternoon’s game much like they did against the Islanders yesterday with Christopher Higgins drawing an early penalty; Andrei Markov scored on a wristshot from the point to put the Canadiens up 1-0 with the powerplay goal. The Rangers went on the powerplay a few minutes later only to have the Habs draw another penalty to arrange for another powerplay. Montreal kept the pressure up and Alex Kovalev cashed in on a beautiful pass from Chris Higgins to put the Habs up 2-0 with two powerplay goals. A flawless penalty kill by Montreal highlighted the last few seconds of the period and the Habs went into the first intermission with a 2-0 lead.

The second period opened at the same furious pace, this time from the Rangers, and Huet made several saves against the first couple of shifts to maintain his shutout. Sergei Kostitsyn drew a penalty only a few minutes later and then drew a penalty shot during that powerplay; the Habs went up 3-0 on his wristshot over the glove of Hendrik Lundqvist. A Rangers powerplay did produce a goal from Michael Rozsaval (he redeemed himself for the two early penalties that produced the Habs 2-0 lead) to cut the lead to 3-1 and only 24 seconds later Brandon Dubinsky wired a slapshot over the glove of Huet to quickly make it a one goal game. Alex Kovalev laid a hard elbow on New York’s Hollweg, right into his jaw, and got away with it; this did increase the pace of the already physical game and the entire Bell Centre waited to see if there would be retaliation of some sort. Before that could happen though, the Rangers completed their three goal comeback with a goal during a scramble by Gomez.

Seconds later a brawl broke out in the New York end of the ice as Hollweg decided he would take his aggression out on Sergei Kostitsyn instead of waiting to meet Kovalev. Orr made a run at Francis Boullion who gladly stepped up to meet the challenge from the much larger player and they had a good dance. The whole thing resulted in Hollweg and Orr being ejected from the game and Montreal going on a 3 minute powerplay as Gorges and Boullion took penalties as well. A two minute four-on-four situation started things off with no damage done and the Habs went on the powerplay, hitting the post before ending the period with the 3-3 tie.

A scrum at the end of the second period eliminated the Canadiens powerplay and allowed for some four-on-four time before the Rangers would have a powerplay of their own. Tomas Plekanec had a bit of a breakaway only a few seconds in but Lundqvist made a big save to keep the game tied. The Habs killed the penalty off and play continued to go back and forth at an exciting pace until Chris Drury finally beat Huet to put the Rangers up 4-3 on a nice pass from Nigel Daws. Mara followed that up with another Rangers goal to seal the game at 5-3 with five straight goals from the team from New York.

Montreal 4 - New York Islanders 1

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.

Washington 5 - Montreal 4 (OT)

Alex Ovechkin apparently decided he owed the Canadiens a little something after his team was shut out in Montreal on Tuesday; the four goals and one assist he notched tonight in the second half of the home-and-home certainly makes it seem that way.

Ovechkin and Kozlov traded goals in the first and second period before Ovechkin netted his second of the night at the mid-point of the second period to give the Caps a 3-0 lead, leaving the Habs scratching their heads as Olie Kolzig stopped everything they threw at him. The Habs got a goal from Sergi Kostitsyn only 50 seconds after the second Ovechkin goal and brother Andrei landed a powerplay marker with a fraction of a second remaining in the period to cut the lead to 3-2; this was the first time that brothers had scored in the same game for Montreal since the Mahavolich brothers in 1974.

Ovechkin scored at 12:30 of the third to increase the Washington lead to 4-2 before Guillaume Latendresse scored 1:17 later to make it a one goal game again. Things went back and forth and the Habs finally pulled Christobal Huet and managed a goal with 32 seconds remaining, again from Latendresse.

Ovechkin scored his fourth goal of the game in overtime to end it but the Habs grab a point and gain some confidence after coming back from a 3-0 deficit.

Montreal 4 - Washington 0

The Canadiens welcomed the Washington Capitals to the Bell Centre on Tuesday and worked some first period magic that is almost typical of them of late. Mark Streit, Saku Koivu and Sergei Kostitsyn all scored in the first period and Alex Kovalev added another in the third to put the Habs up 4-0 at the end of regulation. Christobal Huet was very sharp and made 35 saves on the way to his second shutout of the season.

2007-08 NHL All-Star Game Results

The Eastern Conference prevailed in Atlanta over the weekend, winning the NHL Superskills competition 9-6 and the All-Star game 8-7. The breakaway challange ended up less than impressive, but everything else stayed true to the regular excitement expected of the NHL All-Star format.

By the numbers, from NHL.com:

A perfect 8 ­­ San Jose goaltender Evgeni Nabokov became the first goaltender since 2002 to put up a scoreless period when he stopped all eight Eastern Conference shots in the second period. The last goalie to play a perfect period in All-Star play was Nikolai Khabibulin, who did it in the third period for the World team against the North American squad in Los Angeles.

Khabibulin may have had to work harder, he faced 17 shots, more than double Nabokov’s workload, but Nabokov earned his perfect period by robbing the East’s Ilya Kovalchuk twice in the final 1:03. He gloved the Atlanta star’s rocket from the slot as the period neared the one-minute mark, then sprawled to stop a breakaway bid an instant before the buzzer.

Nabokov’s performance was a big improvement from his only other All-Star showing — he allowed five goals in the third period in 2001.

Fastest start, latest finish – One of the few All-Star Game offensive records dating from the Original Six era was broken when Columbus’ Rick Nash scored just 12 seconds into Sunday’s game. That broke the mark for fastest goal from the start of a game, set by Detroit’s Ted Lindsay in 1950, when the defending Stanley Cup champion Red Wings faced the NHL All-Stars. Marc Savard’s game-winning goal with 20.9 seconds remaining in regulation also was the latest tie-breaking goal in All-Star history, though three games have gone to overtime and the 2004 game had to be decided in a shootout. Before Savard’s goal, the latest game-winner was in 1996, when Ray Bourque snapped a 4-4 tie with 38 seconds left to give the Eastern Conference a 5-4 victory over the Western Conference.

Stoppers – East goaltenders Rick DiPietro, Tomas Vokoun and Tim Thomas faced more shots than any winning group of goalies in All-Star history. The 51 shots by the Western Conference stars were the third-highest single-team total in All-Star history, and the most since the North American team had 53 in its 14-12 win over the World squad in Denver in 2001.

The West really fired away during the final 40 minutes, outshooting the East 20-8 in the second period and 18-9 in the third after the East scored five times while outshooting the West 16-13 in the first.

The East got its eight goals on just 33 shots. The 18-shot imbalance is the most ever against a winning team. The only other team to win while allowing as many as 15 shots more than it took was the 1965 NHL All-Stars, who were outshot 41-25, but beat the defending Stanley Cup champion Montreal Canadiens 5-2.

Senior citizen – At age 37, Detroit defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom was the oldest All-Star — 17 years older than teammate Anze Kopitar of Los Angeles, the youngest player in this year’s game.

Lidstrom also made his 10th All-Star appearance — and while that’s nowhere near the record of 23 held by Gordie Howe, it’s twice as many as any of the players on either team Sunday.

But while the skaters on both teams were a blend of youth and experience, the goalies were a tribute to the over-30 brigade. East starter Rick DiPietro of the New York Islanders, who’s 26, was the only one of the six goaltenders who has yet to reach his 30th birthday.

Hat’s off to Nash – Columbus’ Rick Nash scored once in each period for the Western Conference to become the 15th player in All-Star history to score three or more goals in a game. The last one was Joe Sakic for the West in 2004 – when his team lost 5-4 to the East. The last player to get three or more goals in a win was North America’s Bill Guerin in the 2001 game at Denver.

Nothing to do, again – What was the easiest job at Philips Arena Sunday? How about penalty-box attendant. For the sixth straight All-Star Game, there were no penalties called. The last player to take a penalty in All-Star play was defenseman Sandis Ozolinsh of the World team, who was called for hooking at 5:51 of the third period in the 2000 game at Toronto.

Even more rare is a power-play goal: There hasn’t been one of those since Brendan Shanahan of the Western Conference scored at 16:38 of the second period in the 1997 game at San Jose, with Paul Coffey of the East in the penalty box for hooking.

January 24 - New Jersey Devils

With their 8-2 win over Boston on Tuesday night, the Montreal Canadiens continued their complete domination of the Bruins; 6-0-0 this season, nine wins in a row total. The New Jersey Devils are a whole other story though, winning their last nine games against the Habs. Martin Brodeur, who will start tomorrow night, has a 5-0-0 record against Montreal in his past five starts with a – get this – 0.79 goals against average.

Montreal sits only 6 points back of Northeast Division leader Ottawa with a game in hand, so now is the time to break this nasty streak. The Devils are currently leading their division with 59 points and they are coming off of a big win of their own, 7-3 over Philadelpia on Tuesday, so the offensive onslaught is likely to conintue, leaving the game in the hands of Brodeur and Christobal Huet.

Montreal 8 - Boston 2

The absolute dominance of the Montreal Canadiens over the Boston Bruins continued tonight at the Bell Centre as the Habs delivered an 8-2 stomping of their division rivals, extending their overall winning streak against Boston to nine games with a 6-0-0 record against them this season.

The first period opened with a nifty scrum goal by Tom Kostopolous only 14 seconds in and things just got worse for the Bruins from there. Michael Ryder made it 2-0 a few minutes later but Boston looked to keep things close with a goal from Marco Sturm to make it 2-1. Andrei Kostitsyn put the Habs up 3-1 and Maxim Lapierre put a wrist shot into the top corner over Boston starter Alex Auld with 3 seconds left in the first period to put Montreal up 4-1.

Auld was replaced by NHL goals-against-average leader Tim Thomas in the second period but the Habs’ onslaught continued. Bryan Smolinski gave the Habs a 5-1 lead 5:45 into the period and Mike Komisarak put a beautiful snapshot past Thomas less than two minutes later to extend the lead to 6-1 going into the third period.

The Bruins added some pressure coming into the third but Christobal Huet stood strong in his net, turning away several prime opportunities and looking as sharp as ever. Alex Kovalev put a slap shot off of the leg of a Boston defenseman on the powerplay to make it 7-1 before Boston was able to put a powerplay goal of their own home to cut the lead to 7-2. Andrei Kostitsyn took a beautiful pass from brother Sergei with 2:16 remaining to put the Canadiens up 8-2, and that’s where it ended.

GAME NOTES: Lots of notes tonight! 13 different Habs had a point. Andrei Kostitsyn had three points (2G, 1A).  Sergei Kostitsyn had his first NHL fight and added 2 assists. Christobal Huet stopped 29 shots; Boston actually outshot Montreal 31-24. Alex Auld let in 4 goals on only 7 shots in the first period.

With Ottawa’s 5-3 loss to Florida tonight the Habs are within 6 points of them. New Jersey’s win in Philly puts the Canadiens at 5th place in the Eastern Conference. Next game is in New Jersey on Thursday.

Pittsburgh 2 - Montreal 0

Playing at the Bell Centre isn’t one of the Habs’ strong points and, while they played a solid game against the Penguins on Saturday, Montreal came up short in a 2-0 loss.

Jeff Taffe scored a nice goal over the shoulder of Christobal Huet early in the first period and that goal would stand as the game winner and Danny Sabourin made 31 saves for his second shutout of the year. Huet played a very strong game, keeping his Canadiens in there until Malkin landed an empty netter as the Habs tried to score a tying goal.

Montreal’s home woes continue as they take solid position as the worst home team in the league.

Montreal 3 - Atlanta 2 (SO)

The Canadiens came on strong from the first puck drop tonight but the high-flying Atlanta Thrashers have been strong at home and are leading their division for the first time this season. The Thrashers poured on equal pressure and it paid off with Marian Hossa throwing a pass through the crease that went off of the arm of Christobal Huet and in to put Atlanta up 1-0. The period continued with strong pressure and outstanding goaltending from both teams and there were no more goals.

The second period opened with Atlanta forcing the Canadiens onto their heels a bit before Andrei Kostitsyn made a beautiful move to circumvent two Atlanta defensemen and puck a backhander over the shoulder of Kari Lhetonen, tying the game 1-1. The second period ended with the same ferocious pressure but Huet and Lhetonen kept the game scoreless going into the third period.

Michael Ryder put the Canadiens up 2-1 6:03 into the period, chipping a puck into the Atlanta net after a long series of perfect passes from his teammates. Atlanta poured it on and were finally rewarded midway through the period when Eric Perrin capitalized on a puckhandling error by Huet, throwing the puck into an empty net to tie the game again, 2-2. With the impending overtime, both teams were creating great chances but neither were able to capitalize.

The 4-on-4 overtime opened at a great pace with the Thrashers dominating early and Christobal Huet making up for his earlier mistake with several great saves. Kari Lehtonen was on top of his game at the other hand and the overtime made way for a shootout.

Now, we all know that the Canadiens in general and Huet in particular aren’t posting admirable numbers after regulation and especially in a shootout (2-5 as a team this season). Slava Kozlov shot first for Atlanta and Huet shut the door, making way for Montreal’s first shooter: Andrei Kostitsyn. Andrei performed his second beautiful deke of the night and put the puck through the legs of Lehtonen. Huet followed with another big save on Hossa and Koivu sealed things for the Habs with a second shootout goal, leading the Canadiens to a rare shootout win.

GAME NOTES: Despite the glaring third period error, Huet was very sharp and kept the Canadiens in the game on more then one occasion. Montreal has officially retaken 4th place in the Eastern Conference with this win.

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