GAME SUMMARY – CANADIENS 3 – RANGERS 6
John Tortorella and his New York Rangers were waiting, licking their chops, for the Canadiens to roll into Madison Square Garden. He had his wards prepared to man-handle to Habs from the opening faceoff. Carey Price was man alone in the Canadiens’ goal, allowing 5 goals on 18 shots, as the Blue Shirts had their way early on.
The tone was set early on by Rangers’ forward Brandon Prust, who engaged Travis Moen in a scrap at the opening faceoff. After exchanging goals by Artem Anisimov of the Rangers at 5:28 and by P.K. Subban at 7:11, the Rangers scored 4 unanswered goals by Dan Girardi, Ryan Callahan, Marion Gaborik and Brian Boyle, and ended Price’s night early.
Alex Auld came on in relief of Price with 1:44 left in the first period, and was a huge reason why the Canadiens were able to mount any type of comeback. With James Wisniewski scoring at 4:13 of the second period, and Brian Gionta potting one on the power play at the 54 second mark of the third, the Habs made a game of it. Unfortunately for the Canadiens, Henrik Lundqvist was up to the task, and made a few spectacular saves to maintain the Rangers’ 2-goal advantage. His best save came in the third period, when he robbed David Desharnais with the glove on a backhand.
Vinny Prospel ended the scoring with a power play marker at 17:15, dashing any hope the Habs may have had of completing a last second comeback.
GAME NOTES:
- Although he scored in the second period, I can’t understand why James Wisniewski got the game’s 3rd star. He was terrible in the defensive zone, giving away the puck on multiple occasions.
- After playing 29:26 on Wednesday, Roman Hamrlik added another 23:11 in tonight’s matchup with the Rangers.
- Coach Jacques Martin kept Alexandre Picard and Yannick Weber together all night long. They were the pairing that Tortorella kept matching Marion Gaborik’s line against.
- P.K. Subban had another strong night, as well as rookie Aaron Palushaj. Their energy was not reciprocated at all by their teammates.
- Lars Eller took another couple of penalties in this game. Someone has to remind him to keep his hands down when battling along the boards.
- Benoit Pouliot and Scott “PuckGiver” Gomez were no-shows again tonight, but they look “pretty” when they skate.
NEXT GAME:
The Canadiens face the Minnesota Wild on Sunday evening at 6 PM in Minneapolis.