Carey Price and the Montreal Canadiens trump the Florida Panthers
Carey Price, the newly-anointed number one goaltender for the Montreal Canadiens, has been struggling greatly in the National Hockey League pre-season. The Habs have played five of seven
pre-season games thus far and Price lost in his first two starts. The Canadiens’ passionate fans were less than impressed, which caused Price to tell them to “chill out.”
However, all notions of those two losses were erased when Price shut the door on the visiting Florida Panthers on Monday night. The Habs offence came alive in this game, which resulted
in a big 6-2 win. All Price had to do was make 19 saves to pick up the win, while the Montreal skaters did all the rest.
After giving up six goals in a 6-2 loss to the Ottawa Senators on Saturday, Price and his Canadiens teammates felt they needed to regroup. Since that game, the team has cut 18 players,
with the majority of them being sent down to the Hamilton Bulldogs, Montreal’s American Hockey League affiliate.
“We all wanted to play better, and not have what happened in Ottawa snowball,” Price said. “I felt the same as I did in Ottawa, but we played better.”
Centre Tomas Plekanec led the Habs’ scoring with two goals, and the Habs’ attack came into full force during the third period. They lit up rookie goaltender Jacob Markstrom with four quick
goals in only 3:45.
Despite the big win, it was the Panthers who drew the first blood in this game. With defenceman Alex Henry serving time in the penalty box for high-sticking, David Booth capitalized on
a rebound opportunity, and put the puck behind Price. The Habs had come off of a 5-on-3 advantage a few moments prior.
However, the Canadiens got that goal back when Jaroslav Spacek scored an equalizer at 15:57 to tie the game at one goal apiece. Plekanec scored the first of his two goals at 18:29 to put
the Habs ahead 2-1. His second one came off the skate of Florida’s Erik Gudbranson in the third period.
Ben Maxwell gave Tom Pyatt an excellent pass later on in the third frame, and Pyatt took immediate advantage of the opportunity, potting a quick goal after only 44 seconds had elapsed.
Forward Ryan White continued to impress the Habs’ coaching staff with his offensive talent. He added to the Cats’ woes with a great goal scored off of a breakaway.
The Panthers would later get a power-play tally from Stephen Weiss, who capitalized on a David Booth rebound. But Mike Cammalleri put things out of reach when he crept in behind Florida’s’
defence and put another goal past Markstrom. He too had a highly productive night, putting up a pair of goals and an assist.
The loss was the Panthers’ first of the pre-season, with their record standing at 3-1-0. The Canadiens improved their record to 3-2-0 after playing their fourth straight pre-season game.
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