Excuse the shortened recap today. I have a funeral to attend so the coverage today isn’t going to be up to par with our usual format.
For 40 minutes last night, there wasn’t much to talk about. The Canadiens once again were stalwart defensively, forcing the Hurricanes to shoot wide or into shot blockers, and once again the Habs didn’t overwhelm the other team either but they played well.
One stand out for the Canadiens was Alex Galchenyuk, who was creating plays all game. It may have been the best game he’s played as a Hab. At the start of the third period, Galchenyuk’s stickhandling and passing set up Brandon Prust for the first goal of the game, his second of the season.
With the way the game had gone up to that point, it felt like that would be enough to win it, but the Canadiens kept on going to ensure the win.
An interesting sidenote, the feed on TSN-Habs was way behind for some reason, so my goal light went off about 20 seconds before each goal. The first time it happened, I thought the thing was broken until Prust scored.
10 minutes after Prust opened the scoring, Tomas Plekanec continued his hot streak with a howitzer of a slap shot that hit Cam Ward in the collar bone, popped up over him and into the net. It was Plekanec’s 8th goal of the season, which puts him into a tie for 8th overall in the league. Plekanec’s extended stay in the Czech Extraliga seems to have worked wonders for him.
The very next shift, Max Pacioretty lobbed the puck on goal from behind center ice, and Ward misplayed it and let it get behind him. The fluke goal broke a slump of sorts for Pacioretty, and hopefully now that he has the monkey off of his back, he can start scoring like we’re used to. You’re next, Erik Cole.
Peter Budaj mopped up the rest of what the Hurricanes threw at him for his first shutout as a Canadien, which brought his season save percentage up to a semi-respectable .905. The shutout was Budaj’s first since 2010.
For the perspective of the losing side, check out Canes Country.
