Montreal Canadiens defeat San Jose Sharks 3-1 for second straight victory
Montreal Canadiens (the Habs) have a modest two-game winning streak after beating San Jose Sharks 3-1 in a rare matinee game at Bell Centre on 4 November.
Tomas Plekanec (Montreal’s Centre), left winger Mathieu Darche and Michael Cammalleri scored while Habs won consecutive games for the first time in more than two weeks.
Plekanec notched the winning score late in the second period. Goaltender Carey Price allowed just one goal on 27 shots and was named the first star of the game.
"Two wins in a row, it's something we've been looking for," Price said of the Habs, who hadn't recorded consecutive wins since taking four in a row from 9 November -16 November. "We're trying for some consistency here and definitely winning a couple of games
is nice. Our guys did an excellent job of shutting down their big line and their offense."
The No. 1 defence pairing of Jaroslav Spacek and Roman Hamrlik matched against Sharks’ top line of Dany Heatley, Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau and confined their chances. While they combined for five shots on goal, their scoring chances were limited to
a slap shot by Heatley in the first period and a close-in opportunity for him in the third.
“We had a lot of shots,” said Sharks’ right winger Dany Heatly, who finished a five-game points streak. “I thought some were quality chances, some were from the outside, and if you let Price see any pucks he’s going to stop them. He had a lot of shots but
he had a lot of easy saves.”
Benn Ferriero (Sharks’ Centre) allowed the only offense for the Sharks, who couldn't sustain the momentum from shutout victory in Ottawa Senators on 2 December.
Sharks’ goaltender Antti Niemi allowed three goals on only 19 shots after earning his first shutout as a Shark, which marked the 100th in franchise history, with 28 saves at Ottawa.
Tomas Plekanec put the Habs up on a nice play with 6:02 remaining in the second period where he shrugged off a check by Jamie McGinn on the sideboards, carried the puck into the slot and put a quick wrist shot past Antti Niemi.
Michael Cammalleri added an insurance goal at the 8:22 mark of the third period which stretched the Canadiens to 3-1. He followed up an aborted breakaway by Canadiens’ defenseman Roman Hamrlik and chipped the puck into the net.
Ferreiro scored his third goal in four games for the Sharks, which couldn't make a dent in their two-goal deficit.
“Well, we made enough mistakes to allow three,” San Jose Sharks' coach Todd McLellan said. “You have to give Canadiens credit, they earned those three goals, whether it was turnovers or their fore-check. We weren’t overwhelmed by their offense but there
was enough of it for them to get the win.”
Mathieu Darche scored to give the Canadiens a lead early at 6:00 when he followed up his own rebound from the left side.
Canadiens' rookie defenseman P.K. Subban was a healthy scratch for the second consecutive game. His replacement Yannick Weber has played well, getting an assist against the San Jose Sharks on Plekanec’s goal and was a plus 3 for the game.
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