A TRIUMPHANT RETURN HOME
Habs stymie Rangers at Bell Centre
The skinny: The defences ruled the night and Carey Price finished with a slight edge over Henrik Lundqvist as the Canadiens defeated the New York Ranger 3-0 Thursday night at the Bell Centre. Price made 25 saves for his first shutout of the season. It was his seventh shutout against the Rangers and the 35th of his career. Lundqvist stopped 29 shots. The win extended the Canadiens’ season-opening win streak to a team-record five games.
Fleischmann delivers: Tomas Fleischmann opened the scoring at 8:46 of the second period. David Desharnais’ pass from the blue line hit Rangers defenceman Ryan McDonagh in the back and Fleischmann picked up the loose puck and beat Lundqvist. It was the second goal in two games for the veteran Czech, who signed with the Canadiens after coming to camp on a professional tryout.
Insurance policy: Desharnais and Fleischmann picked up assists as Dale Weise effectively put the game out of reach with a goal at 17:55 of the third period and Tomas Plekanec scored into an empty net.
Price takes the edge off: Price was at his busiest — and best — late in the second period when the Rangers had a 5-on-3 advantage for 1:42. He proved the adage that a goaltender is a team’s best penalty-killer as he made five saves, including two on Derek Stepan and one each on McDonagh, Chris Kreider and Mats Zuccarello.
Breaking away: Montreal had four breakaways or odd-man chances in the first period, but failed to beat
Lundqvist. Lars Eller led a 3-on-1 rush and decided to keep the puck and shoot. It was probably the wrong decision, but he almost had a second chance on the rebound. Max Pacioretty had a clean breakaway, but failed to score.
Giving away the advantage: The Canadiens had three power plays in the first 24 minutes, but all three were cut short when the Canadiens took penalties of their own. Brendan Gallagher was called for tripping on the first power play and the second ended when P.K. Subban was sent off for interference. A power play early in the second period ended when Tomas Plekanec was called for slashing. Montreal missed another chance at a power play when Rick Nash took a swing at Alexei Emelin. That resulted in a roughing penalty, but Emelin was also sent off for embellishment.
Specialty items: The Canadiens came into the game ranked 21st on the power, while the Rangers ranked 23rd. So, it wasn’t surprising that neither team was able to score with the extra man. The Canadiens were 0-for-5 with five shots on goal while the Rangers went 0-for-5 with seven shots.
Coming up: The Canadiens will play their next two games at home. The Detroit Red Wings, who appear to be doing fine without coach Mike Babcock, will be the Bell Centre Saturday (7 p.m., CBC, TVA Sports, TSN-690 Radio). Henrik Zetterberg has scored seven points to help the Wings to a 3-0 record. The homestand ends Tuesday with a game against the St. Louis Blues.