The Montreal Canadiens took their fans on a rollercoaster ride tonight. From a first period in which they were dominated to an awakening in the second and a polished Finnish finish, this was the second insanely entertaining game in as many weeks.
The Islanders drew first blood just after the 4 minutes mark but they were unable to hang on to the lead for more than 2 minutes. Drouin tied things up on a wonderful play orchestrated by Noah Juulsen and Max Domi. While Drouin really struggled at the Bell Centre on Saturday night, he truly was on his game tonight. Unfortunately, The Islanders came back with 2 goals of their own before the end of the first period. In this frame, Niemi gave 3 goals on 8 shots and did seem to battle the puck for part of the night. In fact, at some point he gave some huge rebounds that made me wonder if he was trying to stop the shots or play ping pong with the Islanders. When the buzzer marked the end of the period, most Habs fans were far from optimist and dreaded that this would be one of those games that you're better off forgetting.
In the second period, not much was happening until Antiti Niemi made a huge save by sticking his right pad out in a majestic way to rob a goal to the Islanders. The Canadiens were dominating shots wise in the second frame but were not having any luck putting the puck in until Max Domi score at 15:36. From that point on, the Habs seemed to be flying and the Isles looked like they fell into a deep slumber.
The Habs came out roaring at the start of the 3rd and their hard work was rewarded with the game tying game, scored by Lehkonen who had miss more than his fair share of chances tonight. This was his second goal of the season, he hadn't score since the season opening game in Toronto. This goal seemed to wake-up the Islanders though and they attacked more from that point on and came mighty close to score again. With 25 seconds left in the game, the Habs took a bench minor for too many men on this ice and if I'm honest, I thought that meant they were toast. But they survived the last 25 seconds and headed to overtime.
It seems that whenever a team is down 3 against 4 in OT they rarely manage to kill the penalty but our Habs stood tall and managed it. Says a lot about the state of the Habs defence though that Jordie Benn who was really struggling tonight was there to start the overtime period. Thankfully, there was no arm done. The extra time period was quite entertaining and had fans sitting on the edge of their seats but no winner could be declared and they headed to the shootout.
I'll be honest, when the Habs picked up Niemi on waivers 2 seasons ago I was annoyed. He had already been waived by two teams that season and I thought he was washed-up. Every time he plays though, he makes me regret having ever said that. While he wasn't stellar in the first tonight, he was perfect in the shootout, stopping all 5 Isles shooters (he stopped the 2 Pens shooter he faced in his other shootout win and remains perfect with 7 saves on 7 shots this season in the postgame duels). Got to give credit to Greiss as well though, he stopped the first 4 Habs shooters (Tatar, Drouin, Domi and Kotkaniemi) but was unable to stop Armia who's a right shot. So, after Lehkonen had tied the game, Niemi and Armia sealed the deal for the Habs. I believe it's fair to say that they have some fine Finns there!
Final thoughts: - Drouin was great, at one point he lost his footing in the offensive end and still managed to stickhandle his way out of the mess he was in and find Domi in the slot. There are times were Drouin just gives up on those plays but not tonight. -Jordie Benn was not good tonight....so much so that I wouldn't be surprised to see Karl Alzner back in the line-up tomorrow...Not that he's that much better but while both Schlemko and Weber are out, there's no other option. -The Habs showed determination and a lot of it tonight. Last year, being down 3-1 meant that the game was over....not this season though. Although, those who check the Habs website during the game might have had a good laugh when they saw that the "By the Numbers" article had been posted before the end of the game and mentioned a defeat that never was in Long Island. It has now been corrected. -Every day, Max Domi makes everyone appreciate him more and more not only is he full of energy but he's delivering the points at a more than point per game rate....Who would have thought...
The Habs will be back in action tomorrow night against the Blue shirts, I'll be back then!