Montreal Canadiens take first of home-and-home series against the New York Islanders
The Montreal Canadiens and New York Islanders play each other twice in three in nights, and Canadiens drew first blood, taking the first of their home-and-home series 5-3 at the Centre Bell in Montreal
on Wednesday night.
How it happened
Canadiens centre Tomas Plekanec led the way through the first two periods, assisting on Travis Moen's shorthanded goal late in the first period putting the Canadiens up 2-0, and scoring the only goal of
the second as the Canadiens went into the third period with a 3-1 lead.
It was the New York Islanders power play which kept them in the game. James Wisniewski (who had one goal and two assists on the night) scored on the very same power play that saw Moen score shorthanded.
The Islanders added a second power play goal just 13 seconds into the third from John Tavares.
Jeff Halpern put the Canadiens up 4-2 in the third period, before the Islanders' Doug Weight pulled one back for New York.
Down by a goal in the final minutes, the Isles pulled goaltender Dwayne Roloson in favour of the extra attacker. The plan backfired as Andrei Kostitsyn fired the puck into the empty net for his fourth
goal in his last three games.
What they're saying
The Canadiens' top line of Tomas Plekanec, Andrei Kostitsyn, and Mike Cammalleri continues to shine as they have combined for 13 points over the Canadiens three-game win streak.
"I don't want to praise our line too much, it's way too early to be too happy about it," Plekanec said about the way things have been going his line. "But things are going well for us."
Islanders head coach Scott Gordon was not pleased at all about his team's performance and will be hoping to get more from his players when the teams meet again on Friday night.
"We didn't skate, we didn't make it harder for the opposition to make questionable decisions with the puck," Gordon said. "If you're going to allow them to make skilled plays all the time, they have some
pretty good skill over there and they're going to make them."
The Canadiens have been on a recent surge winning five of their last six while the Islanders have now lost two in a row. With 13 points on the season the Canadiens are tied for first in the Eastern Conference
with the Tampa Bay Lightning who also won on Wednesday night. The Canadiens have a chance to take sole possession of first place when they play the Islanders again on Friday as the Lightning are idle until Saturday.
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