Montreal Canadiens 3-4 New York ‘Ryan O’Byrnes’ Islanders
TopShelf’s Completely professional GameReport:
Young Canadiens defenseman Ryan O’Byrne scored a shocking goal in his own net and the New York Islanders netted the goals they needed in the shootout as Montreal went down for a second straight game.
New York wasted no time imposing their tempo early on, and Richard Park put his team ahead with his 3rd goal of the season just 7 minutes into the game. Doug Weight and Bill Guerin assisted on the opener.
But if the first goal came quick, the second was even quicker. Steve Begin answered back for the Canadiens just 15 seconds after the Park goal when he deflected Roman Hamrlik’s point shot to put his team on level terms.
The Habs wouldn’t settle for just that however, and they went ahead for the first time in the game when Josh Gorges got his first goal ever as a Canadien with a slapshot that backup goalie Joey McDonald just couldn’t locate. The defenseman’s marker was assisted by Alex Kovalev and Tomas Plekanec.
The second period was more of the same, with the Habs looking to add more to the scoreboard to put the game to bed. St. Leonard native Maxim Lapierre did just that with only his second of the season after some very nice work from Chris Higgins, who always seems to do well against his hometown team.
Trent Hunter then got his team right back into it with his 8th of the season. The puck went to Josh Bailey at the blue line who took a slapshot towards Price’s net which came off the crossbar, but Hunter was right on the doorstep to bury home the rebound.
With 5 minutes to go and the Islanders really looking like they were running out of ideas offensively, catastrophe struck for Montreal. A penalty was called on Sean Bergenheim for holding, and Carey Price did what any goaltender would do when his team gets a penalty – go to the bench for the extra attacker. Ryan O’Byrne then engaged in a foot-race with Doug Weight and won, only to spectacularly put the puck into his own net.
The capacity crowd of 21,273 booed the young defenseman, who saw no more of the ice for the rest of the contest.
Soon after, the buzzer blew to signify the end of regulation and the start of overtime. Montreal had the bulk of chances in the extra 5 but couldn’t capitalise to get the two points. Joey McDonald frustrated the Habs’ forwards over and over again to give his team a chance of going home with the full 2 points.
After Trent Hunter’s and Andrei Kostitsyn’s first shootout attemps for their respective teams were saved, Richard Park scored for the second time with a beautiful wrist-shot to beat Carey Price. Alex Tanguay couldn’t replicate what the South Korean did and when Bill Guerin scored, the New York Islanders had completed the comeback to leave the Bell Centre with the full 2 points.
TopShelf’s notes o’ da day:
-Richard Park…what a wrister son!
-Do we have a psychologist on board?
-Ohhh Ryan. You are so dramatic with your own goals! Everyone makes mistakes, yes, but please…not again?
-Higgins played a good game. BUT SUNDSTROM ALSO HAD A GOOD GAME EVERY 10 GAMES! WHERE’S SUNDSTROM NOW!?!? HUH!?!?
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