Jan 03 NHL - Montreal Canadiens Outshoot Florida Panthers 6-5 in Shootout Victory

Well, it came down to the last shot of the shootout in what ended up being a 6-5 victory for the Montreal Canadiens over the Florida Panthers this afternoon in a game that Montreal is very luck to have won.

In a back and forth spectacle that had you seeing the Habs at their worst, including being shut out during their pathetic power-play attempts, to seeing them at their explosive best, rallying in the 2^nd period after being down by 2 and storming back with 4 goals of their own in dramatic style.

One has to wonder if there is a loophole in the rulebook that could allow a team to waive a power-play if ever they are granted one. Not only were the Habs 1 for their last 21 going into this game, but they also succeeded in getting scored on while on the power-play when Alex Kovalev was stonewalled by the 4 Panthers players waiting for him at the blue line, forcing him to cough up the puck and creating a turnover.

Montreal however, did capitalize on many of the chances they were given as they played 5 aside and took advantage of a less than stellar play from a very generous Craig Anderson. Scorers for Montreal included Francis Bouillon, Tom Kostopoulos, Robert Lang and Andrei Kostitsyn who all tallied in the 2^nd period and AK46 notched his second of the game in the 3^rd. Andrei Markov was the only player on both teams who was able to find the back of the net in the eventual shoot-out.

Two things that coach Carbonneau was absolutely sure of at game’s end during his mini press conference was that Halak would need some work as would the power-play, two factors that easily could have had this game end with a different result.

But as they say, “two points is two points” and no matter how ugly they were, I’m sure the Habs will take them as they embark on a busy month of January with 13 games including 8 on the road and 3 of those versus the western conference.

Read on for the full, official NHL game recap.

Tags: Andrei Kostitsyn \ Andrei Markov \ Florida Panthers \ habs \ Montreal Canadiens \ NHL \ Robert Lang Alex Kovalev