The bad news is that the Habs have not been very good in this game, the good news is that the Panthers haven’t been much better. It’s a sad reality for Habs fans that if you can limit the opposition to two goals or less, the Canadiens have a very good chance to win. The sunny side of that is that the Canadiens have a great goalie so it’s not improbable, the butter side down of that is that the Habs have a dearth of offense and the trade deadline didn’t do much to change that (See Sekac, Jiri and Petry, Jeff)
The silver lining for both teams is that they both have (at least) two young offensive stars in the making suiting up for them and they both made their presence known tonight. Barkov was a bit of a surprise pick going second in 2013 after MacKinnon instead of Drouin or Jones, but it looks like Dale Tallon made the right pick as the Jagr-Barkov-Huberdeau combo has looked great tonight. The Habs similarly raised a couple of questions when they drafted Galchenyuk 3rd in 2012 after he essentially missed the entire OHL season, but it looks like the Habs grabbed the best player in that draft class.
Barkov potted two in the second and briefly gave the Panthers a lead (and a shot at 400 wins for Luongo) until Galchenyuk stormed back with his 20th of the season. We knew it would happen, we just didn’t know when. Certainly couldn’t have come at a better time as Galchenyuk made it even-steven for everyone once again.
Scoring Summary
| 1ST PERIOD | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17:37 | MTL | Lars Eller (12) Wrist shot – ASST: Jeff Petry (12), Nathan Beaulieu (7) | 1 – 0 MTL | |
| 2ND PERIOD | ||||
| 06:09 | FLA | Aleksander Barkov (13) Backhand shot – ASST: Jonathan Huberdeau (33), Jaromir Jagr(26) | 1 – 1 Tie | |
| 13:11 | FLA | PPG – Aleksander Barkov (14) Tip-in – ASST: Jonathan Huberdeau (34), Dmitry Kulikov(16) | 2 – 1 FLA | |
| 14:35 | MTL | PPG – Alex Galchenyuk (20) Wrist shot – ASST: Tomas Plekanec (31), Andrei Markov(35) | 2 – 2 Tie | |
Penalty Summary
| 1ST PERIOD | ||
|---|---|---|
| 15:36 | FLA | Jimmy Hayes Unsportsmanlike conduct – 2 min |
| 18:14 | FLA | Jaromir Jagr Hooking – 2 min against Dale Weise |
| 19:50 | MTL | Nathan Beaulieu Roughing – 2 min against Derek MacKenzie |
| 19:50 | FLA | Derek MacKenzie Roughing – 2 min against Nathan Beaulieu |
| 2ND PERIOD | ||
| 11:14 | MTL | David Desharnais Interference – 2 min against Jussi Jokinen |
| 13:39 | FLA | Dave Bolland Cross checking – 2 min against Pierre-Alexandre Parenteau |
Shots
| PERIOD | FLA | MTL |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | 9 | 8 |
| 2nd | 6 | 9 |
| Total | 15 | 17 |
Stats
| CATEGORY | FLA | MTL |
|---|---|---|
| Power Plays | 1/1 | 1/3 |
| Hits | 24 | 13 |
| Faceoff Wins | 26 | 18 |
| Giveaways | 7 | 11 |
| Takeaways | 2 | 2 |
| Blocked Shots | 13 | 15 |
| Penalty Minutes | 8 | 4 |
