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Habs Thrashers Game Thread: Price holds the fort in 3-1 win

Montreal Canadiens at Atlanta Thrashers

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Carey Price made 40 saves, and pretty much carried his team through 60 minutes, to give the Montreal Canadiens a 3-1 win over the Atlanta Thrashers.

The Habs netminder was called on to make several big saves throughout the game. His lone blemish, through no fault of his own, came off a tip-in from Nik Antropov who had been near the Montreal crease most of the evening. Price’s confidence was so strong, he even chose to play a man short when he took a delay of game penalty for flipping the puck over the glass

Max Pacioretty opened the scoring in the first period, with a point blast that found it’s way through a crowd and past Chris Mason. Pacioretty had a few big opportunities one-on-one with Mason as the game progressed, with the Atlanta netminder winning those battles.

The Canadiens had just five shots on goal after one period, and 13 through two. Their first, and what  for a while  was their only second period shot was a power play marker from James Wisniewski.

With Mason pulled, and the Thrashers pressing, Scott Gomez chipped the puck up the ice. Brian Gionta hustled to beat Zach Bogosian for the loose puck, putting the game away with an emty net goal.

Montreal held a decisive edge in the faceoff circle (35-18). David Desharnais was 11-2 on faceoffs and had an assist on the Wisniewski goal. Perhaps he caught Joel Bouchard on RDS’ pre-game, who noted that DD needed to prove he could play effectively on the road.

Certainly not a game to guage how the Canadiens will do in the playoffs, especially with the Thrashers fielding some new faces, but with a New York Rangers loss, the Canadiens hold a five-point margin for 6th place in the Eastern Conference.The Canadiens have to beat teams like this the rest of the way through the regular season.

The Canadiens next visit the fire-sold Florida Panthers on Thursday, before facing a playoff contender in the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday.

Three Stars: 1. Carey Price 2. Max Pacioretty 3. Nik Antropov

Scoring Summary

First Period

1. MTL Max Pacioretty (unassisted) 13:22

Second Period

2. MTL PPG James Wisniewski – A. Kostitsyn, D. Desharnais 19:26

Third Period

3. ATL Nik Antropov – A. Stewart 14:14

4. MTL EN Brian Gionta – S. Gomez 19:14

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