The Montreal Canadiens have now won 6 more games than most anyone had predicted them to win, and one gets the feeling that they are done yet.
Thursday night’s impressive display at the Bell Centre was once again a tribute to the triumph of heart.
The Habs opened the game with their voracious speed as usual, even jumping out to the early lead on Tom Pyatt’s well deserved 1st goal of the playoffs, but the Penguins – and referees – quickly caught up.
Here is an excerpt about last night’s ref bafoonery, from one of the best Habs’ writers out there, Mr. Mike Boone from HabsInsideOut.com
Shall we enumerate the screw-ups?
• Ruslan Fedotenko tackles P.K. Subban at the Pittsburgh blueline to set up Maxime Talbot's breakaway goal. No call.
• Sidney Crosby, the most hated man in Montreal, trips Roman Hamrlik during a Pittsburgh power play that was to produce Chris Kunitz's goal. No call.
• In a replay of the Kyle McClaren hit that KOed Richard Zednik in 2002, Mark Eaton tried to take off Andrei Kostitsyn's head. No call.
• At the end of the second period, Crosby's styrofoam stick breaks on a harmless Hal Gill tap. The best hockey player in the world looks beseechingly at the officials, Gill is called and the Canadiens, trailing 2-1, begin the third period on the PK.
Talk about the seventh man, the Canadiens had to cope with Pittsburgh's seventh and eighth men – an ungainly clone of a Penguin in zebra stripes.
Bring back Kerry Fraser!
Even Chris Lee isn't this bad.
I mean, seriously ... lace up Stevie Wonder and give him a whistle.
For the rest of the post, please click here or copy/paste the link(http://habsinsideout.com/boone/34407 ).
I highly recommend you read the rest of the piece as it doesn’t remain fixated on the officiating, but rather, much like my own point of view, tends to focus of the fact that this playoff run is getting sweeter by the second.
Tonight’s game was all but in the trash heading into the 3rd, as fans anxiously awaited another performance of the Penguins shutting down the Habs in the final frame of the game, especially considering that Montreal could barely manage to fire 3 shots on Fleury in the 2nd period(just like in Game 3), but that was not to be.
Unlike Game 3, where the Habs mustered a mere 11 shots on Marc-Andre Fleury in the final two periods, the Montreal team that took to the ice in the 3rd period was an entirely different squad.
They did not sit back. They did not look tired.
They forechecked and backchecked as if it were the opening moments of the first period and turned the tables on the Penguins.
In contrast to their own play from Tuesday night, Pittsburgh simply seemed stunned and caught off guard by the tenacity of the Canadiens in the 3rd and let the advantage of momentum quickly slip away.
Not surprisingly, the Habs hard work paid off rather quickly as bounces finally started to go their way.
Max Lapierre continued his resurgence as a valuable piece of this Montreal team as his 2nd goal of the playoffs, a sweet little wrap-around move where he beat Fleury to the post by a hair, brought the game back to square one only 2 minutes into the 3rd.
Building on that momentum and conitnuing their aggressive puck persual, Brian Gionta caught the Canadiens first legitimate break of the playoffs as he saw his pass redirect off of a Penguins defenseman’s skate and past Fleury. Gionta’s “pass-goal”, his 5th of the post-season, would wind up being the game winner and, as ironically anti-climactic a play that it was, it could prove to be the ultimate turning point in this series.
The game was hard fought and, although Pittsburgh usually led the flow of the game thanks to their talent, the Canadiens hard work and undying/relentless will kept them in it long enough to capitalize.
There was a moment early on in the 2nd period when Kris Letang missed a simply gaping, wide open net, with Jaro Halak down and out, but simply whiffed on the puck, missing out on what would have essentially been the nail in the Canadiens coffin.
Instead, thanks to Letang’s momentary lapse of shooting ability, the Habs were able to hang around long enough to claw their way back.
As Jacques Martin said tonight, ‘it was a full team effort.’
The coach managed to use each and every one of his players and it worked out nicely. With contributions from nearly every unit, both up front and on defense, the Habs as a unit played a strong game and perhaps their strongest 3rd period of the year.
Most of all, it still comes down to CLIENT Jaroslav Halak.
After allowing the first two pucks he faced go past him, Halak shut the door on the Penguins ensuing 33 shots. Jaro was nothing short of spectacular on many occassions throughout the game and, as a he has proven time and time again, will do whatever it takes to keep his team in the game.
He has done it all playoffs long, and he did it again tonight.
It was truly another spectacular effort by the Canadiens as they left Pittsburgh sitting stunned at the end of the game.
The series now heads back to the Igloo all knotted up at 2 games apiece, essentially meaning that it is now a Best of 3, with the Cup Champ Penguins holding home-ice advantage once again.
But, home ice aside, the Habs have won 6 more games than most anyone believed and, by the looks of things, don’t seem to be done yet, so don't rule them out.
There is an electricity in the streets and air of Montreal.
Maybe it’s the Ghosts of the Forum slowly awakening and finding their way down Ste. Catherine’s street.
Or maybe it’s just a new generation of legends blossoming before our very own eyes.
Whatever the case may be, everyone is loving it and at this point the Habs can do no wrong.
Jaroslav Halak put the fear into the Washington Capitals and now he’s doing it to the Pittsburgh Penguins, who could have scripted that.
Habs 3 – Penguins 2 | Highlights
Post-Game Numbers
- Sidney Crosby has now gone 8 games without a goal at the Bell Centre. Habs will be looking to make that 9 in Game 6.
- Jaroslav Halak leads all NHL netminders with a .934 Save Percentage.
- Halak has stopped 326 of the 349 shots he has faced.
- In the 2 games where he was pulled, Halak had a Sv% of .807, allowing 11 goals on 57 shots.
- In the 8 games that Halak has started in these playoffs, he has stopped 280 of the 292 pucks fired at him. That’s a mind-blowing .959 Sv%.
- In 11 playoff games thus far, the Montreal Canadiens are the most out-shot team by far(of the 8 remaining teams). The Habs have taken 26.3 shots for per game as opposed to their goaltenders facing an average of 37.7 shots against per game.
- The upside to those stats is that the Habs have scored 29 goals on 289 shots, good for a team shooting percetage of 10.0%.
- The more interesting upside to the shots stats is that the Habs goalies(mainly Jaroslav Halak) have only allowed 33 goals on 415 shots, good for an opposing shooting percentage of 7.95%.
- To put that into better perspective; Habs Team Sv%: .921 – Opposition Team Sv%: .900.
The Habs are now off to Pittsburgh, guaranteed at least another 2 more contests in these glorious 2009-10 playoffs.
Another interesting thing to note is that the Canadiens currently have the 24th overall pick in this June’s Draft. With their win tonight, and the likelihood that the Bruins could very well oust the Flyers in their Game 4 tomorrow evening, the Habs may soon be moving up to the 25th overall pick.
As far back in the pack as that may be, at this point in time, fans only want to see that number get higher!
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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