Ottawa overcame the absence of Jason Spezza and Sergei Gonchar, along with an early deficit and a sluggish first period, to crush Montreal 5-1. Craig Anderson made 31-saves for the win, but did not need to be dominating to secure the win. Here’s the boxscore.
Game Notes
-Despite two fights and a ton of penalties the game was not particularly explosive
-Speaking of fights, both were completely incidental and irrelevant (particularly Zack Smith‘s)
–Smith came close to an own-goal in the third as he cleared the puck off his own post
–Chris Neil took two dumb penalties (one while on the powerplay), but he did score late
–Mark Borowiecki continues to struggle and had a particularly egregious turnover in the third
-Along with his goal Jim O’Brien had a short-handed breakaway
-So many NHL teams front their goaltenders to block shots, but tonight the Sens were able to benefit from the strategy as three of their goals were second chances off blocks and a fourth was deflected in by a defender attempting to block
–Anderson‘s best save was off Prust point-blank in the third
-Despite playing well Zibanejad had the least amount of ice time on the team
The Goals
1. Montreal, Plekanec (pp)
Anderson stumbles and is unable to stop the puck from trickling through his feet
2. O’Brien (Karlsson, Condra)
Bangs in Karlsson‘s shot after its blocked by the crowd in front
3. Alfredsson (Wiercioch, Turris) (pp)
Wiercioch‘s point shot is blocked and Alfredsson hammers home the loose puck; it was a nice break for Alfie as just moments before he rang a shot off the post
4. Zibanejad (Greening, Benoit) (pp)
Big slapper deflects off Habs defender through Budaj
5. Phillips (Smith, Greening)
Hammers home the puck from the slot
6. Neil (Benoit, Smith)
Another shot blocked in front gets cashed in on the wrap-around
This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)
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