Canadiens Steal The Show At MSG

The last thing the Montreal Canadiens wanted to do was head into the weekend down 3-0, in a series that has game 4 set for Sunday evening at Madison Square Garden.

With goalie Carey Price out with injury, back up Dustin Tokarski was still looking for his first Stanley Cup Playoff victory of his young career. He failed in game 2, his first chance at a playoff win. He would have to play from behind again Thursday night. New York opened the scoring at a boisterous MSG, as Carl Hagelin tipped in his goal from Martin St. Louis, past a sprawling Tokarski, to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead. The Rangers dominated the first period, and lead 14-4 on shots. Montreal came into the second period with more life than the opening frame. Andre Markov beat Henrik Lundqvist with a wrist shot that just got past his glove, to tie the game. It was a goal that you could feel the energy sucked out of MSG for a few minutes. Montreal did better getting pressure to the net, and though they trailed on shots 13-9 in the period, things were looking up for the Canadiens heading into the final period tied at one. The third was a frenzy of a period, as both teams looked for the leading goal. Lundqvist and Tokarski kept the game tied until about three minutes left in the period, when Daniel Briere broke the tie. Briere found the puck from his old Sabres teammate Thomas Vanek, and put his backhander past Henrik for the 2-1 lead late in the third.

New York and MSG was on edge, knowing the series could be 2-1 if they didn’t score quick. After a timeout and a pulled goalie, the extra man would pay off. Withe the clock running down, and 30 second left, Chris Kreider tipped the puck into the crease and it deflected off a Montreal Defenseman for the tying goal.  

Heading into overtime, Montreal knew they needed to score quick if they wanted to take a game in New York.

“[Briere] spoke up right before we went out and he said, ‘Listen, overtime, it’s in their building, they’re emotionally high, scored a big goal, we gotta be ready at the start because you know they’re going to come out hard and try to end it early,’ ” Montreal defenseman P.K. Subban said. “We had to be ready right from the start and I thought our first couple shifts, our first two shifts, were great. We put ourselves in a good position to win the hockey game.”

The Rangers would only get one shot in the overtime to Montreal’s three. The third was all it would take. Alex Galchenyuk made up for the unlucky bounce at the end of regulation, and tipped the winning goal past Lundqvist.

“I wasn’t really happy with the way I played [Thursday night],” Galchenyuk said. “I was hoping I would get a bounce going my way and sure enough I did. I can’t be more happy about it.”

Some may call it lucky bounce, but however you look at it, you have to give Montreal credit, they never took themselves out of the game.

Daniel Carcillo was being held back linesman Scott Driscoll as Dorsett and Prust were fighting. Carcillo physically attempted to get away from Driscoll, who was escorting him to the penalty box. He was assessed the minor for charging Prust and a game misconduct. Also today he was suspended 10 games for the incident, while Prust will continue to play the rest of the series.

Game 4 is set for Sunday evening 7 pm EST NBCSN/TSN

No Hockey Tonight, Going with the Chicago White Sox as the pick for tonight.

photo credit: getty images gifs: official-nhl