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Mike Condon had to come up big within the first minute and half of the game, making two huge saves in close, and then getting lucky when Justin Williams flipped a loose rebound over the wide open net.
Tom Wilson took a dumb penalty by boarding Greg Pateryn five minutes into the first. The Habs could only put up two shot attempts and had no shots on net on the powerplay. They did end up scoring the opening goal a couple of minutes later on an defensive zone turnover by the Caps that Alex Galchenyuk took to the slot, passed off to Dale Weise who took a shot that Holtby couldn't control leaving Galchenyuk to pound the loose puck home to put the Habs up 1-0.
Nice hands by Alex Galchenyuk. 1-0 #Habs pic.twitter.com/g8e5HorOrH
— Marc Dumont (@MarcPDumont) February 25, 2016
The Habs went toe to toe with the Caps in the first period, tied in shot attempts with the NHL's best team before earning another powerplay (with Tom Wilson going off again) where Brendan Gallagher scored on a rebound to put the Canadiens up 2-0.
The Habs lead 2-0 heading into the second period.
Scoring Summary
| 1ST PERIOD | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9:09 | MTL | Alex Galchenyuk (15) - Asst: Dale Weise (15) | 1-0 MTL | |
| 17:47 | MTL | Brendan Gallagher (17) PPG - Asst: Andrei Markov (28), P.K. Subban (42) | 2-0 MTL |
Penalty Summary
| 1ST PERIOD | ||
|---|---|---|
| 5:17 | WSH | Tom Wilson Boarding against Greg Pateryn |
| 17:17 | WSH | Tom Wilson Hooking against Andrei Markov |
Shots
| PERIOD | MTL | WSH |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | 14 | 9 |
| Total | 14 | 9 |
Team Stats
| CATEGORY | MTL | WSH |
|---|---|---|
| Power Plays | 1/2 | 0/0 |
| Hits | 9 | 12 |
| Faceoff Win % | 53% | 47% |
| Giveaways | 3 | 2 |
| Takeaways | 2 | 3 |
| Blocked Shots | 4 | 6 |
| Penalty Minutes | 0 | 4 |