NHL Update- Montreal Canadiens defeat Florida Panthers 6-2
The Montreal Canadiens hosted the Florida Panthers in the 54th game of the NHL preseason this Monday. The match took place at the Centre Bell Arena as twenty two thousand fans attended the game.
The Head Coach of the Montreal Canadiens, in a pre-match conference said “though we are the stronger team on paper, but we need to dominate the game in order to show that we really are stronger of the two.”
The game started on a slower side with both teams playing very cautiously. Neither of the teams overdid in their attempt to score a goal and dominate the proceedings. There was a steady flow in both teams playing style and were looking to score, provided
they got the opportunity. After the fifth minute, the Montreal Canadiens looked the better team as they attacked the Florida Panther’s goal every now and then. However, this was not to be converted into a goal and the Florida Panthers managed to score on a
counter attack thanks to a ninth minute goal by David Booth.
This was all that the Florida Panthers could manage in the first period, as the rest of the period was totally dominated by the home team, Montreal Canadiens. With pin point passing, coupled with powerful shots on goal, the Montreal Canadiens scored in the
sixteenth minute through Jaroslav Spacek. Continuing their dominance, the Montreal Canadiens managed to score once again in the nineteenth minute through Tomas Plekanec. This put the home team in the lead at 2-1 and cheers from all over the crowd were heard.
The score stayed at 2-1 as both teams went into the break.
During the break regarding the support by fans, Carey Price said "They were very supportive, and it was much appreciated, it just makes things way easier. It's easier on me; it's easier on my teammates. It's just easier on everybody when you can feel
the support."
The second period began with both teams approaching the match defensively. Not pushing too much to score they looked to contain. This resulted in the period ending goalless and the score remained same, 2-1 in favour of the Montreal Canadiens.
It was not a case of teams coming up with less goal attempts, but it was due to the tight defence that both teams came up with. The Florida Panthers came up with 7 goal attempts out of which none were successful in making their way into the net. The Montreal
Canadiens managed 8 goal attempts with the same results.
The close score lined up for an exciting third period. This was indeed the case for the home fans and the Montreal Canadiens as they scored quite a few times in the last period.
As soon as the period began, the Montreal Canadiens scored from a bullet strike by Tom Pyat from 35 feet. Florida Panthers in their hunt for a goal to pull back the 3-1 deficit came up with small mistakes regularly. This resulted in the Montreal Canadiens
scoring twice in the fourth and the fifth minutes. First goal came through a Tomas Plekanec shot and the second came through some splendid display of passing. A perfectly executed pass by Engqvist to Ryan White that put him in an open shot position and he
managed to score from it.
From here onwards, this was to be a cruise to the end for the Montreal Canadiens as the score was 5-1 in their favour. The Florida Panthers did not give up till the very last minutes and this resulted in them scoring through Stephen Weiss in the nineteenth
minute, but this was too little too late. The Montreal Canadiens made a final move and managed to score once again in the last minute through a Michael Cammaleri 8 feet tip in.
The Montreal Canadiens won the match 6-2 and completed a dominating performance.
At the end of the game, Carey Price said “"Tonight was awesome, it felt good."
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