The Montreal Canadiens weren’t supposed to give the mighty Washington Capitals much trouble, but with a perfect game plan that shut down Alex Ovechkin, the Habs pulled out a 3–2 overtime win at the Verizon Center on Thursday.
Tomas Plekanec, who engaged in a little verbal jousting with Capitals goalie Jose Theodore in the build-up to the series, scored the winner at 13:19 of overtime with a slap shot to the top corner.
The Canadiens got the ball rolling with Michael Cammalleri in the first period on the power play. But the Caps responded soon after with a goal from defenseman Joe Corvo.
The Caps outshot the Habs 19–7 in the period but goalie Jaroslav Halak stood on his head for Montreal and that gave them confidence for the rest of the game. In games where he has faced at least 35 shots (Washington had 47 shots), he is now 10–0–1.
Washington took the lead 2–1 early in the third period when Nicklas Backstrom took a nice pass from Mike Knuble and fired a wrist shot past Halak.
But the Habs kept plugging away and got rewarded when their top line of Scott Gomez, Brian Gionta, and Benoit Pouliot combined beautifully to equalize at 7:34.
The tale of the match was the disappointing day for Ovechkin, as well as Alexander Semin, and Mike Green. The Caps went 0–4 on the power play.
The Canadiens lead the series 1–0 with Game 2 coming up Saturday night.
Tomas Plekanec, who engaged in a little verbal jousting with Capitals goalie Jose Theodore in the build-up to the series, scored the winner at 13:19 of overtime with a slap shot to the top corner.
The Canadiens got the ball rolling with Michael Cammalleri in the first period on the power play. But the Caps responded soon after with a goal from defenseman Joe Corvo.
The Caps outshot the Habs 19–7 in the period but goalie Jaroslav Halak stood on his head for Montreal and that gave them confidence for the rest of the game. In games where he has faced at least 35 shots (Washington had 47 shots), he is now 10–0–1.
Washington took the lead 2–1 early in the third period when Nicklas Backstrom took a nice pass from Mike Knuble and fired a wrist shot past Halak.
But the Habs kept plugging away and got rewarded when their top line of Scott Gomez, Brian Gionta, and Benoit Pouliot combined beautifully to equalize at 7:34.
The tale of the match was the disappointing day for Ovechkin, as well as Alexander Semin, and Mike Green. The Caps went 0–4 on the power play.
The Canadiens lead the series 1–0 with Game 2 coming up Saturday night.
