|
Price ties Ken Dryden in all-time wins, by Andrew Saadalla |
|
|
|
|
|
The Montreal Canadiens can breathe a sigh of relief on Wednesday morning after defeating a red-hot New York Rangers team at Madison Square Garden. In giving their new head coach Claude Julien his first win behind their bench, the Habs took a step forward thanks especially to the re-emergence of Carey Price. The all-world goaltender showed signs of a return to form in a losing effort against the Winnipeg Jets last Saturday yet solidified his position amongst the franchise's elite netminders, tying the legendary Ken Dryden with his career 258th win.
Price stopped 28 of the 30 shots he faced against a potent Rangers' offense which features the likes of Rick Nash, who was stoned by the Habs' goalie on a breakaway but had the best of him on a second attempt.
Miraculous overtime save aside, Price's efforts would have been in vain had it not been for his defensemen.
Shea Weber scored a goal and added an assist while his defensive partner Alexei Emelin also notched a helper on Andrew Shaw's eighth goal of the season. Andrei Markov (1A) played an outstanding yet quietly confident game despite finishing with a minus-1 rating (as did Jeff Petry), and the blue-liners combined for a grand total of 12 hits 10 blocked shots. Greg Pateryn led all defensemen with five.
Up front, struggling forwards Alex Galchenyuk and Brendan Gallagher might be wise to take a page out of Shaw and Tomas Plekanec's books as the latter two are slowly fitting within Julien's system.
Despite taking a questionable penalty during one of the team's rare power plays, Shaw scored his first goal since January 24th on a wraparound. His line mates' tireless efforts around the net caused Henrik Lundqvist to scramble for a loose puck courtesy of Weber's blast from the point, and Shaw wasted no time in pouncing on a golden opportunity.
Plekanec, on the other hand, struck the iron in overtime after being sprung forward by Markov, and one can only imagine how much the former's confidence would have been positively affected by such a timely goal against an elite NHL team. It was a nearly-perfect outing by the 34-year-old Czech, and his exemplary defensive intelligence was once again on full display. A performance like last night's might be contagious for Artturi Lehkonen, as both are seemingly developing chemistry and playing a strong two-way game.
The Habs will nevertheless continue to have their work cut out for them as a victory against the Rangers should convince them that they can string together consecutive wins for the first time since winning three in a row between January third and eighth. Riding their wave of optimism after an encouraging performance will be quintessential for a group looking to keep their Atlantic Division rivals at bay:
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»