NHL Update- Montreal Canadiens win 4-3 against the Minnesota Wild.
The 48th game of the NBA preseason took place between the Minnesota Wild and the Montreal Canadiens. Both teams were playing in the 4th game of the preseason and both of the teams were in a good position to win the match given their
past record in the preseason thus far.
Everybody knew that it would be an exciting battle between the two and this is reason that an attendance of twenty two thousand people was observed in the Centre Bell Arena, home ground of the Montreal Canandiens.
Indeed this match started off on a high with both teams looking to score as early as possible. However, as the period progressed, both teams settled and waited for a mistake by the other team rather than attacking. However, the Montreal Canadiens decided
to change their strategy and played an attacking game. This paid off as they managed to score in the tenth minute through Andreas Engqvist. The Montreal Candiens continued the attacking approach to the game. However, this went against them, as the Minnesota
Wild scored in the thirteenth minute through Cal Clutterbuck on a counter attack.
The rest of the first period witnessed both teams not over doing to score. Both teams preferred staying back and waiting for a mistake which did not happen and both teams were the dead locked at 1-1 at the end of the first period.
During the break, one of the sports analysts from ESPN said “the first period was just a glance of what you would be seeing in the next period. Expect change in strategies and three or four goals.”
Without a doubt, this was the case but the period was totally dominated by the home team, Montreal Canadiens. From offence to defence, they seemed to master every skill in every department which restricted the Minnesota Wild to just one attempt on goal during
the course of the period.
The dominance of the Montreal Canadien’s was so much that they scored three goals in three minutes. The first goal came in the seventh minute through White from an 18 feet tip-in. The second goal came in seventh minute again by a 12 feet backhand from Dustin
Byod. The score at the time was 3-1 in favour of the Montreal Canadiens. Working past the Minnesota defence once again, the Montreal Candiens scored in the ninth minute through a spectacular 58 feet slap off by Brandon Nash.
Last ten minutes were also dominated by the Montreal Candiens, as they managed to fire shots at the Minnesota Wild goal on almost every time they had possession. They managed to come up with 9 shots at the end of the period out of which they managed to score
thrice.
At the end of the second period, Scott Gomez of the Montreal Canadiens said
“now we have the lead going into the final period. We will be looking for another goal or two and maintain the tight defence we have thus far.”
The final period of the match begun on a slower side but as the period progressed, the Minnesota Wild came out on top of the Montreal Candiens. The Minnesota Wild’s were able to come up with some early shots but it was not until the fourteenth minute that
they scored through Justin Falk. The Minnesota Wild came up with constant goal attempts and broke past the defence. The Montreal Candien defence was crumbling and was all over the place according to the analysts. The Minnesota Wild with the constant pressure
on the Montreal Canadien defence managed to score once again in the last minute. The goal was scored by Kyle Brodziak but it was too late.
The game ended with the score on 4-3 in favour of the home team, Montreal Candiens. The final period of the game saw the Minnesota Wild come up with a total of 9 shots out of which they managed to score two times and the Montreal Canadiens came up with six
unsuccessful goal attempts.
At the end of the match, the winning Head Coach Jacques Martin said “though we dominated much of the match but our defence disappointed us at the end. We will be looking to improve on it as we have no other choice if we want to be a contender for the
title in the upcoming season.”
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