Game #23Habs Come Alive In Third To Secure A Single Point

Details

Date: 21/11/09
Opponent: Red Wings
Location: Montreal

Loss: 2-3 (SO)

Habs Goalie: Price (L)
Opposition Goalie: Howard (W)

Habs goalscorers: Cammalleri (2)
Opposition goalscorers: Stuart, Datsyuk (1, SO), (Zetterberg - SO)

Play of the game

Both of Cammalleri's goals were good, but the first, considering it was scored 9 seconds into the third, takes the cake. You know that during the intermission the cliches must have been flying in the Habs' dressing room. Stuff like 'come out strong', 'win the period' and 'score an early one' would have all been said. Rarely, as much as the players may try, do these words mean anything, but tonight, however, Mike followed his orders; with a little help from his friends that is. Martin decided to put Pleks with Mike and Kostitsyn to start the third (all eggs in one basket approach) and it seemed to work. Pleks won the face-off and it was then Spacek who got the puck up to Andrei. Kostitsyn broke the zone and dropped it to Mike who simply let one of his bullet wrist-shots go.

Dome hockey team

The 6 players we're playing in a no changes, do or die contest in the dome



Forwards

Mike Cammalleri - Game Puck
Mike played well on the 'first' line to start the game (with Moen and Metropolit), but it wasn't until Martin put him with his favorite centre and Kostitsyn that he really picked it up. He scored two goals and spent the rest of the game looking for the hat-trick. I would have liked a better shootout attempt (high, missed-shot), but you can't really complain as he was the reason we even got there in the first place.

Andrei Kostitsyn
This was a grand week for Andrei and he finished it off in style tonight. He may have a new best-friend in Camms now as he found him with 2 more great passes. We may think of Kostitsyn as a one-dimensional type player, but I think that his passing is something to be reckoned with. Just like Kovalev we are finding out that there is more than just 'the shot' and just like Alex we are realizing that time and patience seem to be well worth it.

Tomas Plekanec
Pleks tried his heart out on the PK early in the game and seemed like the rest of that period, along with the second, were perhaps recovery time. He wasn't useless during that time, but he didn't do too, too much. In the third, however, Martin rewarded him with and NHL winger (no offence MaxPac) and he lit up again. He was involved in both goals and got unlucky by hitting the post on the shootout.

Defencemen

Roman Hamrlik
It was an odd thing to not see Roman on the PP, but tonight that was the case. My guess it had more to do with resting the aging #1 than anything else. That said, he was still used quite a bit. He was really good on the PK, but couldn't do much about either goal. He made up for it, however, by being on the ice for our 2 goals and posting a +2 rating.

Jaroslav Spacek
Jaro had a few moments that weren't so great, but tonight the good outweighed the bad. The bad parts were his lack of speed and a few careless zone-clearing passes. The good was an assist, a +2 rating, good positional play and over 21 minutes of ice.

Goaltender

Carey Price
Carey may have a long look towards Laraque tonight and wonder why on earth he was even on the ice for this game. The 'fighter' got himself 6 minutes of penalties very early on. That led to the first goal and essentially the second as another penalty was taken while they were trying to kill off his mistakes. That said, Carey should have had the first goal, it was an easy shot that he couldn't control. Aside from that, though, he played a great game and gave us hope right until the end. It was another 30+ save performance (32) as his great week continued in this one. It was too bad that he couldn't come up big in the shootout, but Datsyuk and Zetterberg are two of the best; besides it's not as though we scored anyway.

Comments

5 points in 3 games means we had a pretty good week. Tonight we looked pretty good considering the injuries, the fact that we played last night and the fact that the opponent was Detroit. I thought that we started the game very well in fact - plus, how could you not love the original Habs shirts! All of that momentum was gone, however, with one BGL shift. Within 15 seconds he high-sticked a Wing (cutting him) and knee-on-kneed Kronwall who didn't return. The rest of that period was spent killing off penalties and by the end of it we were down by 2. The second period was played by two teams that played last night. Both groups looked tired and neither seemed to be going for it too much. The third period, however, was ours. We started it well and continued that strong play right until the end of OT. It was unfortunate to see an OT loss (first on the year), but I am still glad that we got 1 point instead of 0. It will be important to carry this type of play into next week as the minute we start playing like we are missing some of our best players is the minute that we will start sliding back down in the standings. It would be nice to see a move of some sort by Gainey in the coming days, but all I can say is, don't hold your breaths.