DESLAURIERS FIGHT GAVE TEAM A ‘SPARK’
Fourth-liner’s scrap tilted momentum in the Canadiens’ favour against Bruins
BOSTON Carey Price made 41 saves on a night when the Canadiens were outshot 43-22.
Jeff Petry scored the winning goal in overtime.
Paul Byron scored a short-handed goal to give Montreal its first lead.
And Brendan Gallagher scored his 18th of the season.
But the player wearing the Game of Thrones cape as the outstanding player in the Canadiens’ 3-2 win over the Boston Bruins was fourth-liner Nicolas Deslauriers. He was on the ice for a mere 9:43 but his first-period brawl with Kevan Miller was the turning point in the game.
“We scored right afterwards and if you look at the type of fight it was, it gave us a spark,” said Canadiens coach Claude Julien. “It was an evenly fought battle between two guys who are really tough and they didn’t hold back. It’s not the kind of thing we see too much anymore, but I think the players and the coaches appreciated what he did, and that’s why he’s wearing that famous cape.”
“That was big for our team,” said Price “He stepped up. He’s a warrior as usual and that gave our bench a lift.”
But it was Price who carried the team on a night when he was kept busy. The Canadiens took the lead on Byron’s short-handed goal late in the second period and they hung on until David Krejci scored a power-play goal with 37.6 seconds remaining on the clock.
And hanging on was the only way to describe the action in the third period. The Bruins outshot Montreal 17-5 and were enjoying a 6-on-4 advantage after pulling goaltender Tuukka Rask.
It was Price’s second standout performance here this season. He made 33 saves to shut out the Bruins on Oct. 27.
“It’s the atmosphere here. It’s a great place to play hockey,” said Price. “I always enjoy the rivalry between our teams.”
The Canadiens didn’t need Price in the overtime. Max Domi won the faceoff against Brad Marchand and directed the puck to Byron. Domi got it back, waited patiently to take a shot, and when Rask was unable to control the rebound, Petry used a backhander to hit the puck in mid-air. The winning goal was scored after only 15 seconds.
“It didn’t take long and that was three guys who have done a pretty good job for us in overtime,” said Julien. “It starts by winning a draw and regrouping, and it’s all based on speed. You’ve got (Byron) and then you got Jeff Petry, who just takes off, and we’ve got a pretty good threeman attack that gives us what we want. And again that bloodline of Jeff Petry in the baseball world, he showed his talent on that goal.”
Julien was referring to the fact that Petry’s father, Dan, was a major-league pitcher and Jeff played baseball until he was 16, before giving it up to concentrate on hockey.
While the Canadiens gave up a lot of shots, there was the usual talk about forcing the Bruins to shoot from outside. Montreal limited David Pastrnak, Boston’s top scorer, to two shots on goal.
Julien said he was happy with the defensive effort.
“I think the biggest thing for me is that we’re eliminating the glaring mistakes and the turnovers and the sloppy decisions, which crept into our game once in a while,” said Julien. “There were decision-making things that ended up costing us games, but we’re a lot better. I think we’re a little more conscientious.”