Canadiens outlast Capitals in regulation
Last Updated: Saturday, November 21, 2009 | 12:17 AM ET
By Justin Piercy, CBC Sports
The Montreal Canadiens notched a rare regulation win with a 3-2 victory over the Capitals in Washington on Friday.
But that's not to say parts of the game didn't feel like overtime.
After Brendan Morrison cut Montreal's two-goal lead in half with 2:32 to go, the Capitals were handed a power-play chance, pulled their goalie for the extra-attacker and came as close as a Mike Green shot off the post with under 25 seconds remaining.
But the Habs (11-11-0) — who got scoring from Travis Moen, Tomas Plekanec and Mike Cammalleri — hung on to record only their third win without going to overtime or the shootout this season.
"The last three and a half minutes were kind of hectic," Canadiens coach Jacques Martin said. "But up to that point I felt we were managing the game well."
Carey Price made 32 saves to out-duel Capitals goaltender Michal Neuvirth, who stopped 19 shots in his first appearance this season.
"It felt like we were in our own end for 10 minutes," Price said. "There was a lot of red out there. Especially when I lost my stick. I've got six players against four with no stick. That makes it pretty tough."
The Capitals opened the scoring midway into the first when the Canadiens had some trouble clearing the puck out of their own end. An attempted clear from the corner ended up gliding into the faceoff circle and onto the stick of Eric Fehr, who snapped it over the glove of Carey Price.
Price was busy in the period — the Caps' power play camped out in the Montreal zone for the entire two minutes of defenceman Jaroslav Spacek's tripping penalty at 13:20.
The Montreal netminder kept his team in the game and allowed the Canadiens to even things up 3:59 into the second period. Moen parked himself in front of Neuvirth and the Habs forward deflected a shot from the point by defenceman Roman Hamrlik.
Erskine's stick meltdown
The game remained tied for only 2:47 thanks, in part, to the disintegrating stick of Capitals defenceman John Erskine.
Erskine had his stick shatter on a breakout pass attempt at his own blue-line. The Canadiens tandem of Max Pacioretty, Andrei Kostitsyn and Plekanec scooped up the puck and smothered Washington in their own end before Plekanec beat Neuvirth five-hole to make it 2-1.
In the dying minutes of the second, a stretch pass from Mike Green to Brooks Laich came within a whisker of tying the game. Laich took the pass at full speed on the Montreal blue-line, deked twice on Price but fired the puck over the crossbar on his breakaway chance to leave it a 2-1 game heading into the third.
A Canadiens power play 3:20 into the final period featured two chances for the shorthanded team, the more dangerous coming from Matt Bradley, who fought off a Montreal's Scott Gomez while forcing his way to the net.
Price came up big on the play — even when he was pushed into the net, he kept the paddle down and the puck out of the net.
The Canadiens had a chance for an insurance marker with nine minutes to go when Pacioretty and Kostitsyn teamed up on a 2-on-1 for the Habs. The pass by Kostitsyn was converted by Pacioretty to beat Neuvirth through the wickets, but the puck trickled on the outside of the post.
Cammalleri didn't miss on his chance with 7:31 to go. Paula Mara set up the Montreal sniper for a one-timer for the eventual game-winner.
With 2:32 to go, Morrison made things interesting by taking a pass from Green at the top of the crease and backhanding the puck over Price.
"We turned it on at the end," Morrison said. "But it was too little, too late."
Maxim Lapierre's hooking penalty with 1:52 to go only added to the thrilling finish, which came to a head with Green's shot off the iron with under 25 seconds remaining.
"It's easy to rip on your players when you lose to a team that's below you in the standings," Washington coach Bruce Boudreau said, "but I thought Montreal played a strong game. The biggest thing was I didn't think we were ready at the start of the game. We were flat. … We went out there and thought it was going to be an easy win."
Washington will look to avoid the same result when they visit the basement-dwelling Toronto Maple Leafs on Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday at 7 p.m. (ET).
