Pacioretty, Canadiens end drought against first-place Lightning
MONTREAL — It had been more than a month since Max Pacioretty scored a goal and, when he finally got one, it was in the midst of a goaltending duel.
Montreal’s Carey Price and Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy traded spectacular saves for most of the night, but Pacioretty managed to score his first goal since Nov. 30 and Paul Byron got the only goal in a shootout to lift the Canadiens to a 2-1 win over the Lightning on Thursday night.
The win ended the Canadiens’ five-game losing streak.
“No one will really understand what it’s like when you go from a stretch where you’re not scoring, getting robbed the first shift one game, getting one taken back [for offside] the next game, feeling confident in your game but not producing,” said Pacioretty, a fivetime 30-goal man who has nine through the first half of this season.
With both teams down a man, Pacioretty scored 20 seconds into the second period and Nikita Kucherov tied it 44 seconds later.
That was all the scoring through regulation time and the fiveminute overtime despite a plethora of chances at both ends. The Lightning outshot Montreal 40-36 in regulation and 45-38 overall.
“That was the most fun I’ve had playing hockey in a long time,” said Pacioretty. “Our line played great.
“Carey played great. Their goalie played great. You could feel the energy in the building. All things considered, fans were really having fun tonight and really enjoyed the effort in the game. We have to take that in and remember how it feels and play for them and ourselves.
“To play an entertaining style of hockey, trying to create and make plays against the best team in the league, that’s a lot of fun.”
Pacioretty was robbed by Vasilevskiy from close range in the opening seconds of the game, but Price matched the Bolts goalie save for save. He was especially sharp on back-to-back chances in overtime by Tyler Johnson and Ondrej Palat.
“I’ll be honest, when I saw it was going to a shootout, I thought this could be a long one,” said Tampa Bay coach John Cooper. “But Byron made a really nice shot.
“That would go in on pretty much anybody. But if I’m going to sit here and circle the best [goalies] in the league, I think we may have just watched two of them.”
Byron was the only player to score in the shootout for Montreal (17-20-4), which posted its first win since Dec. 22.
Leafs 3, Sharks 2 (SO)
TORONTO — Nazem Kadri was an assist short of a bizarre Gordie Howe hat trick in a 3-2 Leafs shootout win over the San Jose Sharks that saw the Toronto centre rip out part of Joe Thornton’s mountain-man beard in a fight.
Kadri also scored in regulation time, ending a 12-game scoring slump dating back to Nov. 30.
Thornton and Kadri dropped the gloves just two seconds after being tossed out of the opening faceoff for slashing each other.
The 38-year-old Thornton’s beard took a beating in the scrap, thanks to Kadri hanging on to his beard rather than his jersey as he was twirled around by the bigger Shark. A hunk of Thornton’s facial hair was left on the ice like a mini-tumbleweed.
“I ended up with a piece of it in my hand,” Kadri said of the beard. “I have no idea how that happened
“I thought I was a hockey player not a barber,” he added with a chuckle. “I didn’t mean to grab him there. I mean he’s a big boy. I couldn’t reach all the way across his shoulder. I felt like I just grabbed him in the middle of his jersey and just came down with a handful of his hair.”