Montreal Canadiens 3-1 Detroit ‘Original six sexiness! Ya we’re like, totally awesome dude!’ Red Wings
TopShelf’s completely Professional GameReport:
The Montreal Canadiens played one of their best – if not the best – games of the season, scoring three second period goals to beat the defending Stanley Cup Champions, the Detroit Red Wings.
Much was said about Montreal’s inability to convert their chances on the powerplay, and how they would cope with Detroit’s play on the man advantage – play which has earned them the first overall rank with an extra man on the ice.
That didn’t seem to faze Montreal though, who had the brighter start of the two teams. Other than controlling the game, the Habs were not shy to test Ty Conklin in the Wings’ net. The only dent in an otherwise pleasant period for Guy Carbonneau’s men was injury wise – Alex Tanguay going out after being checked hard by Brad Stuart, not returning again for the rest of the night.
The rest of the Habs players did their best to avenge their fallen teammate, and Maxim Lapierre did just that only 5 minutes into the middle period. The St Leonard native used his speed to get behind the Detroit defense and then shot the puck towards the net, where it appeared to go off Nicklas Lidstrom’s skate and behind Ty Conklin for the opening game of the contest. It was the centreman’s third of the season and second in as many games, after having also found the back of the net during his team’s last game against the New York Islanders on Monday night at the Bell Centre.
Tomas Plekanec then added salt to the champions’ wounds 7 minutes later when he put a finish to a superb bit of passing with Andrei Markov and Alex Kovalev. The Czech’s goal came on the struggling Montreal power play, beating Detroit goalie Ty Conklin.
A mere 80 seconds later, Conklin was forced to fetch the puck from his net for the third time when Chris Higgins scored his first goal since his hat-trick heroics against the Ottawa Senators two weeks ago. The New York native found the puck at his stick in the crease after some very nice work by linemate Saku Koivu and took a shot which went off a defenseman’s skate and evaded Conklin to give his team a 3-0 lead.
If the first two periods was mostly one-way traffic in favour of the Canadiens, the third was a different story – at least for the first 12 minutes. Detroit outshot their rivals 16-4 in the final 20 minutes, and they made one of those count. Johan Franzen first took advantage of a Ryan O’Byrne giveaway by deking the young defenseman twice before putting the puck behind Carey Price to cut the lead to two.
Montreal then went on the offensive to put the game to bed and Tomas Plekanec thought he had beaten Conklin for the second time in the game after a scramble in the crease, but after video reviews the call was a no goal. It didn’t matter for the Habs, who left the Motor City with two valuable points and perhaps more importantly, a performance that had a very clear message to the rest of the league.
TopShelf’s notes o’ da day:
-YES! FUCK YES! It was like the first time I had Mac and cheese man : SO BEAUTIFUL! This is what I wana see more of. The most tactically sound game of the season, no doubt about it. Good work on the penalty kill, good job only going to the box 3 times, good job on the transitionional play.
-Ryan O’byrne got so O’burned. Bet you didn’t see that brilliant line coming. It put a dent on an otherwise impressive performance for the young good-looks-challenged man.
-That second goal was like the first time you find out that you do have a second testicle, it’s just well concealed. It was like the Plekanec-Kovy of last year. REVISITED! KEANU REEVES!
-Price is awesooooooooome!
-Our defense, and I’m not just talking about our 6 defenseman, played an amazing game. How many times did you hear the names Zetterberg, Datsyuk or Hossa during the game!? YEAH DAS WASSUP!
-Tom Kostopoulos did some very nice work with Koivu and Higgins. Best game of the season from Greek Sleek? I know, I know, the nickname needs work. Fuck you.
-Hopefully Tongue wasn’t banged up too bad.
-The performance tonight was very impressive, but it’s not as impressive as it would have been last year. We know what this team is capable of, and tonight they just reminded everyone. We have to continue on the same path now. Thank you very much.
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