Mike Condon made the first highlight reel save of his career, stoning Jean-Gabriel Pageau on a diving low glove save. The Senators came out a lot stronger to start the second period, throwing some heavy shots towards Condon who stood tall on each of the three he had to face before the Canadiens would turn it up and gain a powerplay opportunity at the 4:30 mark of the second period.
The powerplay would spend very little organized time in the Senators zone. After the powerplay, the Senators would start to show signs of frustration and got involved in a pretty rough scrum after the whistle that saw Mark Methot jump on top of Torrey Mitchell and pull him down the ice. The Canadiens would end up with the man advantage once the dust settled. After not being able to settle down and actually take advantage, Jean-Gabriel Pageau would lead a 2 on 1 and squeeze one through Mike Condon’s glove to cut the Canadiens’ lead to 2-1. Brendan Gallagher would use his speed to draw another penalty to give the Habs a 5 on 3 chance for 1:09. The Canadiens would use the advantage to try to set up a shot from the point. Obviously, setting up the shot from as far away as possible is the best way to take advantage of a 5 on 3 opportunity. The Habs would get another powerplay and spend most of the time floating around and give up the best chance of the two minutes by giving Curtis Lazar a breakaway. The Canadiens powerplay is now 1/12 on the season.
A good powerplay doesn’t only matter on the scoreboard, it also a matters in terms of team of toughness. A team that can’t make their opponent pay for bad hits or illegal plays is only making itself more vulnerable to bad hits and illegal plays. I hope something is done to seriously change the powerplay situation, as the Canadiens could have put this one away already if they had a powerplay unit that wasn’t this inept.
Scoring Summary
Penalty Summary
Shots
Team Stats
