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Montreal rolls into the swamp the first half of their home-and-home with the Devils. Brodeur manning the pipes for NJ, while Garon will get the nod for Montreal while Theodore nurses a sore collarbone. Souray will also be returning in his first game back since suffering a knee injury back in February.
Lines for Tonight:
Perreault – Koivu – Zednik
Dagenais – Ribeiro – Kovalev
Bulis – Dowd – Ryder
Sundstrom – Begin – Ward
Souray – Komisarek
Markov – Rivet
Dykhuis – Boullion
Montreal Goal (1-0 MTL): Zednik gains the zone and gets the puck in. He takes a hit, stickhandles around, and takes a shot on net. Perrault drives to the net and rings home the rebound. Perrault’s 16th of the campaign from Zednik at the 4:35 mark of the 1st period.
New Jersey Goal **DISALLOWED** (1-0 MTL): The NJ defenceman gets the puck at the point and wrists a shot high. Patrick Elias bats it high out of the air and over Garon’s glove hand. Goal was disallowed as Elias’ stick was above the crossbar as he tipped it in.
First Period Wrap-up: It was all Montreal in that period. New Jersey had the pressure going sometimes, and had a disallowed goal, but Montreal had great pace and had a great period. Shots at one point were 11-2 for Montreal, but they evened out to 15-8.
New Jersey Goal (1-1): Zednik tries to clear the zone but gets knocked off the puck easily. Madden has the puck in the corner and bounces it off the side of the net. Langenbrunner picks up the puck behind the goal line and makes the pass back to Madden. Madden throws it into the slot as Pandolfo jumps in and puts it home. Pandolfo’s 13th of the year from Madden and Langenbrunner at the 1:19 mark of the 2nd period.
Second Period Wrap-up: Great pace to this game. New Jersey had it’s moments, and I’d give the second period to them. Shots in the second were 9-12 in favour of NJ. On a side note, Bob McKenzie said during the intermission that the Montreal Canadiens would be the team he feared most in the Eastern Conference going into the playoffs if he was playing on another team.
Game Wrap-up: Montreal seemed to come out much more flat than they did in the 1st. Devils played a good game, and Garon made a spectacular save on Rob Neidermayer in the OT period to keep it a tie. Shots in the 3rd were 3-5 in favour of NJ, and 4-5 in favour of NJ in the OT period. Montreal started great, but seemed to decline as the game goes on.
Shots on Goal:
Montreal 31 – New Jersey 30
Three Stars:
- Mathieu Garon
- Jay Pandolfo
- Martin Brodeur
Habs Best Player: Mathieu Garon. He was great in net and held the point for us. The goal against him was not his fault in the slightest.
