Montreal Canadiens working towards later playoff rebound, edge Ottawa Senators 3-2 in shootout –NHL
Montreal knows that they still have a slight chance of making the playoffs if they really work towards it. The Canadiens are showing some hope as they won their third matchup in the past four, this time against Ottawa Senators, 3-2, in a Wednesday night
shootout at the sold-out Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Despite the low shot opportunities Montreal had on the Ottawa goalie, Ben Bishop, the Canadiens made them count as Bishop fell short on two of 26 attempts while home goalie, Carey Price, faced 37 shots and impressively blocked 35, along with all three attempts
in the shootout.
Erik Cole got the game opener as he fired off his 27th of the 2011-2012 National Hockey League (NHL) regular season 13:45 in. Ottawa followed closely behind as Colin Greening levelled the contest at 1-1 with his 14th of the year less
than a minute later.
A fight broke out in round-one between Petteri Nokelainen and Jared Cowen in the final 10 seconds of the period, giving both teams only four players heading into the next 20 minutes.
Playing against Montreal has always been tough for Ottawa due to the intense Canadian rivalry, but Senators do not consider it a threat to their playoff berth at all.
"For the most part, this team doesn't bring the best out of us for some reason. But we have another opportunity on Friday to find a solution," Ottawa Senators head coach, Paul MacLean, said. "We don't seem to be able to skate the way we're skating when we're
successful. For whatever reason, we don't skate very well against this team."
David Desharnais scored for Montreal 24 seconds into the third period followed by the equaliser to force the overtime lifeline from Erik Karlsson with his 19th.
Not finding a solution in overtime, David Desharnais came out strong for Montreal once again, scoring the only goal in the shootout decider on Ben Bishop to take the much needed two points.
Canadiens will be facing off again with the Senators in back-to-back matches on Friday, definitely making it an interesting contest to watch as Ottawa will certainly hope to make a rebound and secure their playoff position even further.
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