HabsWorld.net --
The Habs played a rare afternoon game on Saturday but unfortunately, someone
forgot to remind the Habs of the start time as they stumbled to a 3-0 loss at
the hands of the Flyers, placing them once again in all too familiar territory.
The loss gives the Flyers a 3-1 series lead as they head home with a chance to
end it on Monday night. The first period was scoreless, a period where you
could argue the Habs at least competed, but it went downhill from there.
The game can be explained by this single second period stat: The Flyers
scored twice as many goals than Montreal had shots. That put the Habs down
2-0 headed into the 3rd and sadly, they weren’t able to muster much of an
attack. Claude Giroux’s second goal of the game went into an empty net
with a minute to go, sealing Montreal’s fate. Ville Leino had the Flyers’
other goal. Michael Leighton got the win turning aside all 17 shots he
faced while Jaroslav Halak was the hard luck loser stopping 22 of 24.
HW 3 Stars of the Afternoon:
1) Jaroslav Halak: Simply put, he was the only one who showed up for
most of this game (although he looked like he was going through the motions near
the end as well). Neither of the goals were his fault, and his puck
handling adventures at least brought some moments of intrigue to a game
otherwise bereft of it.
Statline: 59:19 TOI, 2 GA, 22 SVS, 2.02 GAA, .917 SV%
2) Maxim Lapierre: I’m not going to lie, the statsheet influenced this
decision as he was nowhere near as effective this game in my opinion.
Either the official scorer saw something I didn’t, or he had some plays that
went unnoticed. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt here.
Statline: 0 points, -1 rating, 2 PIMS, 5 shots (game high), 6 hits
(game high), 3/3 faceoffs, 13:20 TOI
3) Jaroslav Spacek: He had a very unnoticeable game which considering
how things played out, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I think that if
the Habs are to keep things alive, he’s going to need to become more of a
positive factor rather than just waiting in the wings.
Statline: 0 points, -1 rating, 1 hit, 18:49 TOI
HM) Marc-Andre Bergeron: He was one of the few players who you could
say hustled all game long. Add to that the big goal saving sprawl late in
the 3rd and that’s good enough to get an honourable mention the way the Habs
played this afternoon.
Statline: 0 points, even rating, 2 PIMS, 2 shots (9 attempts – game
high), 1 block, 14:25 TOI
Stat of the Afternoon: Throughout the series, there was one constant –
the Habs were winning the faceoffs. Today, not even close. The proof
is in the numbers:
Game 1: 32/59 (54%)
Game 2: 30/54 (56%)
Game 3: 34/63 (54%)
Game 4: 18/56 (32%)
