Montreal Canadiens slide past Pittsburgh Penguins 3-2 in Shootout -NHL Update
Montreal tried hard and it paid off in the end as the Canadiens managed to slide past Pittsburgh Penguins during a fierce shootout competition on Tuesday night, February 7, 2012, at the sold-out Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec,
Canada.
Pittsburgh goalie, Marc-Andre Fleury and Montreal’s netkeeper, Carey Price, gave each other’s competition a tough time as they diverted shot after shot.
"He had four or five really big saves, really good scoring chances by their team," Pittsburgh Penguins coach, Dan Bylsma, said. "He made a number of huge saves for us and really stood strong. It was an unfortunate goal for
the second one, but he played a very good game."
Canadiens’ Tomas Plekanec finally managed to score the game-winner after nearly 15 attempts made by the two teams, following a missed opportunity by Pittsburgh’s Jason Williams.
Penguins were ready to grab the victory entering the game, coming out of a 5-2 embarrassing loss to the New Jersey Devils, but Montreal had other plans in mind.
"We came out with a huge play to get the goal, and getting the goal and the kill really energized our team," Bylsma added. "A lot of that period is the way we want to play, we did a lot of good things, played at that pace,
played in the offensive zone and that's how we end up getting that tying goal."
Montreal has now won two games straight and stand number 13 in the Eastern Conference while Pittsburgh Penguins are strong in their sixth number spot for a playoff position.
Louis Leblanc made the opening goal of the game a little over midway through the second period for his third goal of the 2011-2012 National Hockey League (NHL) regular season after which Pascal Dupuis levelled it entering
the final 20 minutes.
Lars Eller made the tie breaker nearly three minutes later, sending the crowd into a wild road but James Neal’s equaliser at 7:32 killed off the momentum to force an unexpected overtime.
Montreal Canadiens have the next on the road in New York against Islanders on Thursday while Pittsburgh Penguins host Winnipeg Jets on Saturday.
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