After destroying the Minnesota Wild Sunday, the Montreal Canadiens fell flat in a 2-0 loss against a Buffalo Sabres team that was certainly hungry for two points in the Eastern Conference.
Ryan Miller made 31 saves, on what was a relatively easy night for him, for his fourth shutout of the season. What chances the Canadiens did have, Miller had a clear view of, but did come up big when called upon. The Sabres All-Star netminder had been coming off a series of 3+ goal games.
The Sabres played a textbook road game, earning their 20th victory away from home this season, making few mistakes in the game.
Turnovers and failed clearing attempts, notably in the second period, led to extra shots on goal and scoring chances, to which Carey Price was forced to save the day. Some have feel that mainstream media have overhyped the “Price saves the day” headline on several occasions, but Tuesday’s game was not one of those. The Habs netminder faced 23 shots, and had anothe 17 blocked and 17 more missed the net.
Price played all six regular season games against the Sabres this season (3-1-2) and never allowed more than two goals.
The Sabres finally solved Price at 8:56 of the second period, in one of those failed clearing attempt situations, when Nathan Gerbe tipped in a Tyler Myers point shot. Gerbe added an empty net goal in the third period.
The loss put the Canadiens another three points back of the Boston Bruins, for first place in the Northeast Division, as they beat the New Jersey Devils 4-1. The two teams will meetup Thursday in Boston.
Three Stars:1. Ryan Miller 2. Carey Price 3. Nathan Gerbe
The Game within: Shift Charts | Head to Head | Corsi/Fenwick
Gloating from the winning side at Die By The Blade
