|
Canadiens vs Panthers - Preseason Game 2 |
|
|
|
|
|
The Panthers intended to give a show in Bathurst tonight with Huberdeau, Barkov, Dadonov, Hoffman and Ekblad all dressed and they did. The big guns accounted for all 3 of the Cats' goals but at the end of the day, it wasn't enough to beat the Canadiens who skated away with a 4-3 win. Contrarily to the Florida outfit though, it wasn't the vets who came out to play for the Habs but the youngsters and the new acquisitions.
There were a lot of positives tonight, Leskinen moved well out there and interestingly enough, he's a left-handed defenseman something that the Habs do need. Meanwhile, Riley Barber also gave a solid effort alongside Ryan Poehling and Nick Cousin who has impressed in both matches so far. As for the older guys, it was our first look at Jeff Petry and Ben Chiarot as a pairing and while there were some teething pain, that just very might well be a solid pairing.
On the scoresheet, Barber got himself a goal and an assist, Poehling finished the game with 2 assists, Petry with a goal and an assist while Peca and Belzile both got a goal a piece. The Habs' first goal was a thing of beauty with some nice passing between Evans, Belzile and Peca who only had to tap the puck in:
Every time the Habs scored, the Panthers tied it up so after the first they were deadlocked at 1-1. Jeff Petry then made it 2-1 Habs only for Hoffman to tie it up on a one timer. The second finished on a 2-2 tie and in the third, the Panthers took the lead for the first time with less than 14 minutes to go in the third. The Habs showed character to come back and tie it up through Barber. With just over 6 minutes to go, Jake Evans took a penalty which could have spelt trouble but thankfully, Ryan Poehling was solid on the penalty kill, managing to steal the puck from the Panthers before turning on the jets and taking the puck up ice, beating Aaron Ekblad and feeding the puck to Belzile for an easy game-winning goal.
Unlike on Monday night, the Canadiens only used one goaltender tonight and that was Charlie Lindgren who made 18 saves on 21 shots therefore surrendering 3 goals. While that's only a .857% save percentage, he wasn't really at fault on any of the goals he gave and he can say mission accomplished for his first game. It's also worth mentioning that for the second time in has many games, Cale Fleury played a solid match and is making a strong case for himself early in this training camp.
The Habs and Panthers will be back in action tomorrow night at the Bell Centre and we should see some of the veterans that have yet to hit the ice such as Brendan Gallagher and Paul Byron to name a couple.
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»