Jan 15 Montreal Canadiens Earn 3-2 Win, Halak With Last Second Save Vs Nashville Predators

A bump in the road was all the loss to the Boston Bruins ended up being for the Montreal Canadiens. The Habs, who had won four straight prior to the 3-1 loss to Zdeno Chara and the great goaltending of TimThomas, came back to the Bell Centre to yet another sold out crowd to face a team that had been struggling, yet whose work ethic was second to none in the league. Montreal would be privy to that work ethic as they managed to get past the Predators by a score of 3-2 with the last predator shot coming seconds before the final buzzer.

Andrei Markov tallied a goal and an assist, Andrei Kostitsyn potted his 15th during a power-play and Guillaume Latendresse got the scoring started for Montreal with Robert Lang adding 2 assists to his team leading stats.

Jaroslav Halak got his 7th start in January went 5-2 during that stint and is 7-2 in his last 9 games played. He faced 2f shots including a second period where Montreal was outshot 10-2, yet Montreal still managed a goal (Kostitsyn's) with one of them.

While it was said that it was difficult to really read this team as they would only meet once this year and not much scouting has been done on them etc, one thing that is certain is that the Canadiens could learn a thing or two about the work ethic that was put in by this Nashville team. This team never let up and kept pressing hard right until the very last seconds, feeling that any break could change the game. Even when Markov's goal, a lucky carom off of Radek Bonk's skate put the Canadiens in what seemed to be a comfortable 3-1 lead early in the third, Nashville never lowered their heads, except to put their noses to the grindstone. They narrowed the lead to just one goal 5 minute later on an extra effort goal by Vernon Fiddler who deflected a shot from the point that Halak initially stopped, but corralled his own rebound and backhanded it past the Montreal netminder who had, by this point, lost his balance.

Not to say that Montreal did no play a solid game themselves, with players like Mike Komisarek blocking 6 shots and giving out 5 hits to go along with the many that were doled out by Francis Boullion and Steve Bégin. Bégin, who got into a melee with Nashville's Jordan Tootoo and lost, was paid numerous visits by his teammates including some sound contact from Komisarek and Boullion that got his attention. Bégin, came to teammate Josh Gorges defence when Tootoo got into an earlier altercation with the Montreal defenseman.

But there have been some nights where it looked like Montreal had thrown in the towel after a bad goal was let in or if they had dug a two goal hole for themselves. Last night's no nonsense, stay the course mentality of the Predators should be a "how-to" video in playing the full 60 minutes. Had it not been for a good save by Halak off a low, Jordan Tootoo shot with les than a second remaining in regulation time, after Montreal missed a plethora of chances on an empty net, this game would have gone into overtime.

And just to end this article on the bright side, kudos to the Canadiens, who despite losing every fight they have engaged in since their enforcer is on the mend from what is now an official back injury, they are at least standing up for each other and showing that they have each others' backs. Proof of this: With Price, Koivu, Tanguay and Higgins (to name but a few) out of the line-up, the Canadiens are 10-2-1 in their last 13 games. So maybe the Habs can put out a few "how-to" videos of their own... 

Read on for the official NHL game recap .

photo from habsinsideout.com

Tags: : Andrei Markov \ Guillaume Latendresse \ Jordan Tootoo \ Mike Komisarek \ Montreal Canadiens \ Nashville Predators \ NHL \ Steve Begin