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After getting shellacked in Ottawa, the Habs bounced back in the best way
possible, crushing division rival Buffalo 6-1 on Saturday afternoon.  There
were many firsts of the season for Montreal in this one as a pair of players
picked up their first goals, three picked up their first assist, and one – P.K.
Subban – made his season debut after signing earlier in the week.

The first period was all Montreal, the Sabres rarely had control in the Habs’
zone.  Ryan Miller was at the top of his game though and had it not been
for a Rene Bourque tap-in with eight seconds left in the frame, the game would
have been scoreless despite Montreal outshooting Buffalo 15-1.  Instead,
the home team took a 1-0 lead into the second and it didn’t take long for the
lead to double as Brendan Gallagher, who was trying to pass to fellow rookie
Alex Galchenyuk on a 2-on-1, banked the pass off a Buffalo defender past Miller.

It was the midway point of the period where the turning point occurred. 
Shortly after killing off a Buffalo powerplay, David Desharnais picked up his
first goal of the season and then just 26 seconds later, a Galchenyuk dangle
sprung Lars Eller on a clear path to the net; he beat Miller to make it 4-0,
deflating the Sabres’ sails.  Like Desharnais, that was his first goal of
the year while Tomas Kaberle picked up his first helper on that tally as well.

Bourque picked up his second of the game early in the third frame, tapping
home a pass from Tomas Plekanec past Jhonas Enroth who replaced Miller to start
the period.  Less than two minutes later, on a Montreal powerplay, Thomas
Vanek took advantage of a rare mistake and beat Price on a breakaway to spoil
Carey Price’s shutout bid.  The officials decided to take over the next
section of the game, calling four penalties in less than two minutes which
resulted in some 3-on-3 play, something we don’t see very often. 
Desharnais ended the scoring with his second of the game with a powerplay goal,
one assisted by Subban in his first game of the year. 

Price made 31 saves in the win (17 of which came in the third) while Miller
allowed four goals on 21 shots in the loss.  (Enroth made nine saves on
eleven shots in his period of work, several of which were high quality ones.) 
Montreal was 2/8 with the man advantage while Buffalo was 0/6.

HW 3 Stars of the Afternoon

1st Star: Rene Bourque – There’s no denying that with Bourque’s
combination of speed and his hands that he can dominate a game.  Saturday
was a strong example of that as he drove the net with a purpose all afternoon
long and picked up a couple of goals doing just that.  He also hit the net
with more times than not which is an improvement compared to early in the year.

Stats: 2 goals, even rating, 5 shots, 17:45 TOI

2nd Star: Lars Eller – With Max Pacioretty looking like he will
be able to return a lot sooner than expected, Eller needed to have a statement
game to help his chances of keeping a spot in the lineup.  This was a good
statement game as he was strong with the puck, engaged along the boards, and put
his offensive skills on full display.  If he has more games like that,
someone else will be yielding their spot to Pacioretty when he returns.

Stats: 1 goal, 2 assists, +2 rating, 2 PIMS, 3 shots, 2 hits, 5/8
faceoffs (63%), 17:59 TOI

3rd Star: David Desharnais – For the first six games of the
year, we weren’t seeing the same Desharnais from last year (aside from the
inconsistencies at the faceoff dot).  On Saturday, we saw the ‘old’
Desharnais, one that was aggressive on the forecheck and making the right
decisions with the puck to lead to a pair of goals and some other scoring
chances.  He probably deserves a higher ranking than this but I dropped him
here as both of his penalties (weak ones at that) negated Montreal powerplays.

Stats: 2 goals, +1 rating, 4 PIMS, 4 shots, 1 takeaway, 8/17 faceoffs
(47%), 18:07 TOI

Honourable Mention: Alex Galchenyuk – He shouldn’t have been
the first star (I’ll avoid getting into another rant about the idiocy of fan
voting though) but he took full advantage of the extra ice time (with Eller on
the wing, only three centres dressed so they were double-shifted at times). 
Not only did he have a pair of quality assists but he also had several high
quality scoring chances as well while being strong on the draw as well.

Stats: 2 assists, 2 rating, 3 shots, 9/11 faceoffs (82%)

Stats of the Afternoon: Raphael Diaz was the only Hab to finish
the game with a minus rating.  Galchenyuk’s TOI was a career high; Tomas
Kaberle, dressed as the seventh defenceman, played just 7:28, his lowest TOI
since January 6, 2004.

The Hamilton Bulldogs were also in action on Saturday.  Goals by Zack
Stortini and Gabriel Dumont gave the Baby Habs an early 2-0 lead but they were
unable to hold on as they fell 4-2 to the Toronto Marlies.