Montreal Canadiens vs San Jose Sharks
March 5, 2010, by Homme De Sept-Iles
Musings and In-Game Scribbles
My English is as good as yours, I just write these in a stream-of-consciousness mode that I insist excuses me from small things like rules of grammar or general etiquette. Let’s call it conversational English, hopped up on beans. You know what kind of beans (no, Carl Mellesmoen, not the magic ones).
Montreal Canadiens (30-28-6) visit San Jose Sharks (40-14-9)
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Game Sixty-Five (score posted following scribbles)
Missed it? Musings capture the game in writing. Based on the RDS telecast, Musings take about 20 minutes to read. More detailed than an article, fresher than a looping highlight and good with morning coffee.
Carey Price gets the hat in net for Montreal. Evgeni Nabokov is twirling in front for San Jose.
Chris Lee and Ian Walsh are the pie-stripe referees.
First Period
Tomas Plekanec and the Kostitsyn brothers (Andrei and Sergei) are the first line for Montreal. Quiet arena. As usual.
Hal Gill and Josh Gorges are Montreal’s defensive pairing. Early entry by Montreal is repelled. We see Andrei K hit a defender. Low to high.
Pouliot gets Montreal’s first shot. He’s on with Gionta and Gomez. No changes thus far.
Nabokov holds onto it for the faceoff.
Montreal newcomer Benoit Pouliot is playing with an undersea purpose. Shoulder drop forecheck.
San Jose’s Jamie McGinn chases the puck down the right side but is bodied out of the play.
Maxim Lapierre line. Travis Moen with him as well.
Gill and Gorges remain on the ice.
Savvy Glenn Metropolit is on now. Gorges retrieves the puck. Up for Mathieu Darche. To Tom Pyatt. Shot. Gorges comes in. Shoots as well. Backhand goes wide.
Pierre Houde notes that the fourth line is continuing their good play from the Boston game on Tuesday.
Andrei K makes a Kovalev “L”. Right to left. Slot. Shot. Nicely done. Save by Nabokov.
Now the Canadiens let the Sharks into the bib area. Price makes two good saves and is beaten once. But the puck does’ not cross the line.
Montreal defensive dean Roman Hamrlik sends the puck in. Scott Gomez goes after it. Puck goes to the blue for a shot by Ryan O’Byrne. Stopped. Return rush results in a knee-save by Price.
San Jose is playing with the greatest will and urgency I’ve ever seen them. It seems a response to the Montreal effort but the Sharks don’t just match. They exceed.
Impressive.
Puck goes out of play.
Darche is on.
Faceoff outside the Shark line.
Sharks come up with it after some Montreal dithering.
Darche is behind the Montreal net and I want to applaud. He’s a winger. And he’s backchecking above and beyond the call of duty. Usually it’s the centre that ends up behind his own net. Wingers should be waiting up by the hash for the breakout. So maybe Darche is out of position. But I like the intent.
Sergei is on. The magic intensity of the Kostitsyn brothers is not apparent tonight nor was it there in Boston. I’m surprised. And disappointed. In the past, when placed together, we saw jungle leaves. Teething blades.
Where is that grim oil glitter tonight? I want the stench of corrosive engines and mountain fire. Maybe Andrei is playing hurt.
Jaroslav Spacek is on. Hamrlik is with him. Plekanec line stays on. We were on a commercial break.
Puck rounds behind Price. San Jose’s Joe Thornton is ahead of the play. Heatley supports well. Thornton is backchecking well as the puck exits the Montreal zone.
Montreal is stopped at the blue line.
San Jose is skating and swerving. Deep. They are finding the space and spaces. Space they usually give up.
Our team speed is, of course, a closed greased fingerprint page. Koivu and Valvoline are gone. I mean Kovalev.
Sharks are pushing. They aren’t dictating the play yet but they are applying for that license.
Today’s tests aren’t in the murk and behind aquarium glass (as our 3-2 win last season saw). No, tonight, the amphibians have left the salt and weed for good. Our own dry, fire game matches well.
AK46 is in. Sergei can’t keep up. Loses his stick. Plekanec can’t support either. Andrei created another middle bubble sand flume.
Exit and return. This time it’s forward Brian Gionta. Gomez is in the corner and rising out. Sand dune curl. Leaves it for Gionta. Short man. Big blast. The net bulges.
Montreal 1, San Jose 0
Pouliot was standing where Latendresse wouldn’t. Gionta got in the space at the top of the circles. I don’t expect many goals from that area. Less from a smallish (shortish, to be fair) forward. Nevertheless, Gionta is a deceptively strong player. And his shot leaves lines. Black lines.
Remember this. We got our big forward. Benoit Pouliot. How many more big forwards do you want?
Car commercial.
Commercial causes us to miss some hockey. Price made a save. Faceoff.
Montreal exits.
Moen and Lapierre. They chase and forget. Chase and forget. The puck is erased from this line’s vocabulary. Where is Radek Bonk? And his luxurious seven-second possessions along the automotive boards. Today it’s Toyota and State Farm. America brings out the carburetor wallet in me.
Shark puck goes long. Icing.
Thornton is on the ice with Heatley. We are reminded that Big Joe has 870 points in the past ten seasons. The stat is deceptive. But it sounds impressive. That points total is the highest of all players in that period. But some guys that did better played several less seasons in this decade. And some will play more next decade. Aggregate numbers don’t do it. Averages, per-game numbers, get much closer to the pistons.
Faceoff to Price’s left.
Pouliot gets a near break-away. Gets a shot. Rebound. Gionta. How. Did. That. Not. Go. In.
Third shot is smothered as well. Gomez is close to the crease.
Sharks get it out.
Another incursion.
Should have been a goal. Gionta just shot. There wasn’t enough time to get it where he needed it. And Nabokov folded and got the middle covered. Low like Lessard. Oui, Mario Lessard.
Just over six minutes in the period.
Bick and back. Spick and splack. And the Sharks are in again. Long shot. Into the legs. Whistle.
Chris Lee calls hooking. Against Montreal.
Boy, I feel bad for Chris Lee. Yes, I know he has earned his reputation. Mistake-prone. And such. But it’s shamed him. He doesn’t hold the authority he needs to feel. Poor guy.
I didn’t see the call but they will show us after the coin break.
We’re back and somehow I miss the penalty. Plekanec is on the first kill pairing. With Moen. Normal.
Thornton, Boyle, Heatley and Marleau are the first wave for Jose. Early repulsion.
Second segment.
In the corner.
To the point. Hops away. Nabokov has to play it. Up for Boyle. Skates. Passes left over the blue line. Puck bounds along the boards. Opposite side. A one-on one. Montreal is not afraid to challenge. They don’t respect San Jose’s speed with the puck. Finally the Sharks do get a pass to the point.
Moore does not belong on this team (I was far less elegant than that in voice).
Moore gets walked around at the blue line. Too little respect. And then when he finally gets an offensive chance he does a spin move through the slot. Uh, not while we’re short-handed.
Penalty ends.
Two and a half minutes left in the period.
Pouliot uses the stick-handling patience he has to round the net and move it to Gomez under the circles for a sharp angle shot.
Save.
Forward Joe Pavelski now beats everyone to the puck for San Jose. Great speed. He has it. Alone. Curling in from the left boards. Price stands. Waits. Raises the glove. Save. Houde says it was a spectacular save. It was. But Price made it look like shaking sand from his boot.
Preternatural calm.
Il l’a.
People are going to start saying that Price is better now. He’s just continuing his good work from December.
Andrei K is playing with growing patience. Gets a control inside the blue line. Shot. It comes back to him. This time he waits and looks. Nothing. But he is settling in.
Moments later baby bro leads a near two-on-one. He looks to Andrei. Forces it. And it’s flat-blocked. Period ends soon afterward.
Dominic Moore is developing Jim Dowd status in my world. Now that’s hard to do.
Not even Chris Higgins and Matt D’Agostini made that list for me. They were on, uh, other lists (is a menu a list?)
Moore, in his short time in Montreal, has shown he is a selfish player who doesn’t recognize his own short-comings. He yaps at the refs, takes the puck for long rides, hacks like a cousin, doesn’t back-check with proper spacing or stick use and is a liability without the puck. He brings the air of a player who has done it all and is recognized many times over for it. But he hasn’t done anything. Expectation is not reputation. Potential ain’t kinetic and bragging is loudest from the couch (ahem).
He is bald hubris and smug boots.
He belongs in Philadelphia.
First Intermission
Montreal 1, San Jose 0
Un autre entrevue avec Benoit Pouliot. I guess I don’t mind. We see the backhand incursion with Gionta’s followup that somehow didn’t go in.
Second Period
Montreal 1, San Jose 0
More replays. The save.
Carey Price!
The goal. Brian Gionta.
Et ben.
Nous sommes de retour.
Whistle goes after the faceoff. Dany Heatley is scary. He has this shadowed glare after he says certain things.
Thornton goes to the box.
First wave is Plekanec. Nabokov goes out quickly to field an around the net puck. He gets to it. But the Canadiens keep it in on the blue line.
Puck is moved out.
Sharks get a deflection. Great play. Crossing deflector.
San Jose 1, Montreal 1
Short-handed.
Canadiens resume. They move it. Gomez is inside the left circle. Stops it. Winds up. Nabokov sees it all the way and gloves it. Brunet says it’s an easy one for the goalie.
Faceoff is won by the Sharks who clear it.
Thirty seconds.
Canadiens spend more than ten seconds trying to set up. And they fail. With just eleven seconds left in the penalty they enter for one last crack.
Crack.
Montreal 2, San Jose 1
Shot form the side. Gomez. Pass to Gionta. Appeared to go off a Shark.
Kostitsyn line follows. Thornton looks to hit someone. Remember when he was scary? With Boston?
He’s someone else now.
Blake and Plekanec. Blake has Plekanec’ head on the ice and rams it.
Blake is reacting to a sticking by the Montreal centre. Sneaky stick. I don’t approve. Either way. Passive aggressive. But you know what they say. Can’t win fair, win with subterfuge.
Mauve Muller is behind the bench and Diamond Dave ain’t talkin’ ‘bout love.
We resume outside the Shark zone.
Four on four. Lapierre and Moore are Montreal’s first pairing.
Early control is Montreal’s. Lapierre falls over an errant Shark stick. Didn’t look purposeful. It’s called.
Montreal controls for about fifteen seconds on the delay.
Montreal gets a four-on-three. Brunet says it’s easier to score on a four-on-three.
Ryan Clowe shakes his head in the penalty box. Tripping.
Gomez and Gionta are on first.
They confer.
Gomez wins the faceoff.
Markov blats it from the point. No.
Another Markovian handle. This time he fakes the shot and passes to the post area. But Gionta can’t make a play on it. Was he surprised by it? Kovie, Kovie, Kovie.
Nabokov stops play.
Montreal wins the faceoff.
Gorges and Markov are the pairing.
Thirty seconds left in the four-on-three.
Montreal has to retrieve.
They re-enter.
And lose it.
Markov keeps it in.
Gomez’ pass is intercepted. Houde says what I was thinking; the pass was fairly telegraphed.
Metropolit is on now with Gomez and Plekanec.
Three forwards and Spacek. I like it.
But the Sharks intercept a pass and clear it.
Seven seconds left as Montreal gets one last segment. Nabokov has to glove a shot after he golfed it right to a Canadien about thirty feet away. Oy.
RDS was saying that Russia should have iced Bryzgalov against Canada. In the 7-3 loss. What about Varlamov? He’s better than both. Yeah, struggling. So what. Context can change paths.
Faceoff to Price’s right. He’s wearing his gambler’s mask. Cards and smoked red.
Markov is working against two Sharks in the corner. Succeeds. Moves it up for a forward. He is a good mucker, much better than he was in 04.
Price makes a Jim Pappin-coulda save in the crease. He’s great. Sometimes it seems so simple. And sometimes they break your heart.
Twelve and a half.
Manny Malhotra is in. Trouble walkin’. Shot. Price is on it. Couple a Habs miss it. Couple a others get it out. Yeah, it was that Manny Malhotra. He’s a Hoser now. San Hoser.
Action is getting ragged. Sharks are trying to get the equalizer. Montreal is matching the intensity.
Gionta is taken down by Ryan Clowe. Brunet says it’s accidental. Crossed arcs.
Sharks enter on the right side. Drop pass. More legs and sticks than pucks and ice. And a penalty now. Chris Lee is more certain about this one.
Commercial.
Slashing call is against Markov. Hmm. A stick broke as Markov pressed it. Well, any time the stick breaks, they’ll call it. It was a normal defensive play. Maybe that’s one that should be examined by the competition committee.
Heatley is tripped as he swivels into the slot. Sharks keep it. Thornton has it in the corner. Where Stan Jonathan liked to pass from. To the slot. Nope.
Sharks keep it in.
They look very good on this power-play. They are better than they were last season. I’m just comparing the two games between these two.
Montreal’s style makes them look better this season, too. Style isn’t the right word. Montreal is not as fast and stylish, passing-wise as last season, perhaps. It means that Jose’s lack in the skating department is not as easily exploited. But that’s not all of it. The Sharks roster is changed and they are not the stand-and-wait team they used to be. I’m intrigued.
Break.
We see a shot of Gomez at the bench, graphite spear and a rack of them behind him. It’s a library of wood weapons. Uh. Composite.
Canadiens control it deep. Moore. Doing very well behind the net. Keeping it away. Great stickhandling.
Crowd after the whistle.
Pouliot is called. Scott Nichol from the Sharks.
Martin shakes his head. Four-on-four to follow.
Plekanec and AK46 (Andrei Kostitsyn, big brother to Sergei Kostitsyn).
Montreal has to start from their own zone. Circling and retreating but holding the puck all the while.
Plekanec has it. He is creating like Koivu. Really. Oh, really. Yeah. Pass. Hesitation. Repossession. Another hesitation. He is even better than before the break. More confident.
Now Sharks exit. And the Canadiens are called. Tripping. Plekanec. Looked dirty.
Sharks go to four-on-three.
Marleau line is on.
We hear some Jaws notes. Sharks win the faceoff. Price is piled into.
Loses his stick. Makes one good save. Another one. And then a great one, stickless, in front of the natural scorer Heatley. High glove.
C’est comme ca qu’on joue. Carey Price.
Stoppage. Penalty is called. Penalty shot. What. Oh man. Sharks.
Dan Boyle will take it. Tank is alive.
Boyle. In. Slows. Even slower. Oh I hate these ones. Fakes. Fakes again. Fakes a deke. Shoots high. Hits the corner.
We resume.
Another post.
And I feel badly for San Jose.
From the point.
Justice is more important than your guys winning. Best team should win. Sharks have been slightly better. Both teams are playing mid-eight hockey, though. I’m impressed.
Montreal two-on-one. Pass is off.
Pouliot creates some long, stretched moments in the slot against.
Now Price makes a Batman bomb-dive save. Brunet and Houde both say quelle arret. And toute un arret. What a save. All of a save. That’s direct.
Price. Someone get him a hot dog and a confessional. It’s all we need.
Propaganda break.
Brunet says that Price is the one most responsible for the Canadiens’ success thus far.
Bad techno on the PA. Yes, there is good techno.
Spacek works against Mitchell behind the net. Hamrlik comes up with it. Up the boards for Pyatt.
Darche line hops on. Shoot-in. Whistle. Darche gets off the ice.
Faceoff is outside the Shark line.
Moore. Loses it. But he falls on his opposite. It nearly works. Sharks move it out. Blake from behind the net. To the neutral zone. Cross-ice pass. Dumped in.
Sharks get it briefly.
Canadiens move it out, though. Slash is ignored or missed by the refs.
Sergei goes in offside. They stay on.
We see the overall league standings and I find myself wondering about the new Phoenix. And the new LA. Both are in the running for the President’s Trophy (awarded to the regular season team first-place finisher), top seven teams, both. We’ll see the new LA on Saturday.
Gionta line works inside the Montreal blue line.
A Canadien skates away from a crowd behind the net. About five Sharks against three Habs. Milling about. Who skated away? Spacek?
There are penalties. One. That number 29 again. He yells “duck off” from the penalty box. Big guy in a truck yelling at a bird delivery fearling in a Datsun. About ducks. Or something.
Ryane Clowe. (That’s how he spells it, yeah. Ryane.) Who feels brave? Who feels privileged. Cigars on the ice and we’re all ok.
Montreal can’t get good control. Then Gionta tries a slot pass that goes all abounce. And Nabokov crawls up to shell it.
Sharks exit. They make it look like even strength. And they get a forechecking plaster check. Good work.
Period trickles out. Granules and greatness. Both teams.
Sharks lead 29-19 on shots after a 14-9 advantage in the second.
It could easily be 4-3 for San Jose right now. Maybe 5-3. Even six.
Second Intermission
Montreal 2, San Jose 1
Demers says forget about the two posts. When a player is dominant as Price has been, he should get some good luck. We see several good to great saves including the point-blanker on Heatley.
Crete reminds us of last season’s 3-2 win over San Jose where Halak faced nearly 50 shots and says the Sharks must be wondering what is up with these Montreal goaltenders. Well drafted, I’d say.
It’s easy to be a hockey fan. Nobody is crying wolf. It’s as safe as a northern Alberta pharmacy in here. And just as cold. Pass me the cheese curds.
Tabernac. Anglified it’s tabarnak.
I ain’t.
Hungry.
Third Period
Montreal 2, San Jose 1
We see Montreal defenceman Josh Gorges interviewed by Luc Gelinas. Some medal references. Josh Gorges presents well. But I don’t doubt the hayseed and brown square bottles. Nothin’ wrong with that. Just sayin’.
We are ready to resume.
I don’t like this camera angle. This rink. The camera is too high up in this rink. At the beginning of the period you can’t see how clean and new the ice is. From a lower angle, you would.
We see the Price save on Heatley again and I see another impressive element. Hal Gill was skating back to Price with the goalstick in hand. At the last moment, Price had to ignore the goalstick offering and make the stickless save.
Headless Ichabod. Flaming pumpkin. Crossed-stitch puck.
Price is facing a breakaway. Ting. Nichol. And he is taken out. No goal. No goal.
Stoppage.
Markov might have done it.
Habs are on the ice and defending their teammates. Moen, Moore and Lapierre. O’Byrne also. A Shark wants to fight.
It was Lapierre that slashed Nichol and then assured his crash into the end boards. Ugly. Lapierre should be out. Houde says Lapierre was unsportsmanlike and that he should have been called on the play. He should be out of the game. He’s a dirty bird.
He’s our dirty bird, though. And I am not bias-free. I still love Claude Lemieux, Patrick Roy, Chris Nilan and others.
Carey Price! High glove save.
He is playing well. Better than well.
Heatley is in. Uses the screen. One-on-two. Leans left. Shoots. High. Glove. The glove. The Pricey, dicey, smiling red gant glove. We loves it.
Loud organ.
I’m all Dryden nod and grinning mask. It happens, it happens.
Plekanec takes it. Four-on-four.
Both teams are charged.
Turnover by Sharks.
Gomez enters from a drop-pass by Gionta.
They pass it. Gomez makes magic for a moment. But he runs out of balance and space. The pass goes to Spacek who advanced a bit late. And now on the other end, Price slows the action.
Faceoff.
Price makes a save off another San Jose draw won.
Long pass from the Jose ice. Jo-Say. The spaces constrict. Penalties are at an end.
Lapierre is on with Moore. Lapierre drops it for Hamrlik.
It’s in the corner. To Gill at the point.
Moore takes a tough hit at the side of the net. I exclaim.
Now a stoppage.
Moore is ok. Stoppage was on the other end.
Hard to tell.
Moore, Lapierre and Moen are on. Sharks aren’t done getting repayment.
Shark in the box. And now Moore is involved
Moore delivers a near-vicious hit. Then takes one as we see on the replay. Moore backed into a Shark in the crease. Tricky. Then he was hit into the post face-first by Douglas Murray. Live by. And die by.
We resume.
Montreal somehow has a man advantage.
Gomez line.
They are stopped twice before setting up.
Pouliot carries it in. Sends it to the point as he crosses the blue for Gionta. His long pass is too long.
Canadiens have to regroup again.
And it’s slow as San Jose’s forecheck on the penalty-kill is strong.
Price sends a pass that makes time get too slow. Across the defensive ice. It floooats. And is …. not intercepted.
Thirty-five seconds in the penalty.
Canadiens can’t set up properly. Both teams are responsible.
Now Moore is in as the penalty ends. He shoots, one-on-one but with an angle from 25 feet. High.
Gorges is retrieving. Sends it along the boards.
And it goes around the jolly teal rink. And Price plays it behind his net again.
And again. Intercepted. Sergei. It’s sudden. Slot. Darche. No.
Action is tattering. Offside. Crowd is cheering. This crowd is very raucous compared to many others. How well do San Jose fans know this game? Maybe they know it better than in cities where the entertainment dollar is hopelessly divided before the hockey hats are out. Hopeful eyes.
Western hockey, eh? I think I’ll check into a bit more closely. Saku is not enough.
Sense of entitlement. Is it great for adversity? Or does it cause it?
What are the percentages and patterns?
We resume.
Heatley line is on. Over eleven minutes in the game.
Brunet and Houde wonder about the Sharks’ frustration level. They refer to the little dirty plays that the Sharks are engaging in.
I guess I missed those.
Today’s game is hard to analyse. It’s fast. Gritty and sudden.
Nabokov captures a puck after some Sergei-created static. Brunet observes the replay and we see Plekanec fail on a deflection attempt in the slot. Brunet remarks that Plekanec seems frustrated to him.
Faceoff is to Nabokov’s left. Canadiens win it and send it down from the blue line. Nabokov plays it back up from behind his net. Canadiens keep it in but the puck then goes out of play on a deflection.
Commercial.
Lapierre says “let’s go” in response to #64 prior to a faceoff. He is smiling and affable. They don’t go.
Yet.
If Plekanec learned from Koivu, Lapierre learned from Begin. Always the smile.
Action is along the boards. It’s a bit slow.
Whistle.
Hooking. Roman Hamrlik. Montreal.
Right at the limit. I’d prefer they call em when they’re close. Makes for cleaner habits.
Eight and a half minutes left.
Early shot. Price stops it.
Sharks enter offside. It’s their kind of play but I haven’t seen much of it tonight.
Faceoff.
Now they set up.
Puck bounds up into the crowd.
We are informed that of the 18 remaining games half are at home and half on the road. For Montreal.
They resume.
Thornton is easy to strip the puck from.
But the action stays in the Canadiens zone. To the other point
Shot. Down on the side. It’s in.
Boyle shot from the circle. Heatley was screening. Off his skate. In.
It’s Heatley’s 33rd goal.
San Jose 2, Montreal 2
Fifteen-on-fifteen shinny goal. Just keep shooting. Corduroy pants. Skinny shin bruise. We’re playing to 22!
Just under seven minutes.
Spacek struggles behind the net.
Sharks keep it in. Boyle gets a shot. Wide.
Habs poke it out. They get a sloppy line change. Not enough time, really.
Heatley takes Plekanec down. Clean. Standing jar. Pah-smash. Oof. He’s ok.
But it results in a three-on-one for Montreal. And a muffed pass saves the Sharks. Andrei led it down the left and tried to get it across. But it melted along the way.
Whistle soon afterward.
It was one of those real three-on-ones. You know. Where you see the triangle, the point and the ice cream at the back of the net. Goal judge choco-cherry.
We return and see Sergei hanging his head on the bench. He was the pass recipient. By the time it got to him it was too slow. He stuck it but Nabokov was right there like a green, rumpled hill.
Sharks are in and around. Moving. They score.
San Jose 3, Montreal 2
Brunet says that hockey is a game of momentum. Pass along the high slot and a one-timer. Good, solid PS3 goal. And a winner.
There are only five minutes left.
Faceoff.
Metropolit hits the post soon after the faceoff.
Pyatt line is working grim. Tall white dwarves. Rings of red and blue.
Pouliot line is on. They pour in.
They are offside.
Sharks win the ensuing faceoff.
Hamrlik retrieves it behind his net.
Turnover.
Marleau. Light, high shot from a sharp circle angle. Trapped high by Price. He lowers to prepare for the faceoff.
Martin’s tongue is hanging, he glances at the clock.
Sharks win the faceoff. Montreal gets to the puck faster.
Sharks are content to sit back and wait.
Canadiens forecheck is numbers heavy but standing. Watching. Andrei K. And his bro. Man. Come on guys.
Just under three minutes.
Markov is tripped after a fake shot and an entry.
No call. Houde is disappointed. Brunet chuckles.
What stupidity. Let’s call less as the game gets more urgent. Logic of leatherheads.
It’s no way to run a country. It’s no way to run hockey games.
Hamrlik retrieves.
More action. Less grace.
Another faceoff. Plekanec is on again.
Andrei is not doing it. Not enough anyway.
Price leaves the net. Gionta is on. He sends a pass form the hash to the slot. Solid chance.
Exit and regroup.
Andrei K. In. Shot. Circle. High. Gloved. Beauty. Was gonna go high. Whistle.
Montreal calls a time-out.
Darude’s hit comes on. It was much more compelling in 2002. It was Koivu’s frenetic energy canticle.
Gomez. Faceoff. Against Setoguchi Goes to the boards. Habs get it.
Plekanec gets it to the slot perfectly. Houde says you couldn’t have a better setup than that one. Pouliot wasn’t expecting it.
Puck leaves. Gionta is in. High shot. Nabokov has to crest-hold it. Nine seconds. Faceoff.
Pouliot fanned on it, we see on the replay.
Faceoff, right:? Right.
Gomez. To Nabby’s right.
Goes to the corner. Gomez works hard. To Pouliot. Another great chance. Backhander.
Clock runs out.
Gomez is frustrated.
Canadiens won the third period. But the Sharks won the first two. Score and shots are not reflective of the reality in many ways tonight. But the better team won. Ugly but deserved.
San Jose 3
Montreal 2
HDS Stars: Carey Price, Scott Gomez, Dany Heatley
RDS Stars: Carey Price, Patrick Marleau, Dany Heatley
Montreal had the individual performances but Jose had less passengers.
Related posts:
Subscribe to the Podcast