CANADIENS BEAT THE LEAFS 3-1

GOAL SCORERS

MTL:   R. Bourque (18:26 - 1st) , R. Diaz (03:29 - 3rd) , L. Eller (11:25 - 3rd)

TOR:   M. Lombardi (18:55 - 1st)

GOALIES

MTL: C. Price (W)

 TOR: J. Gustavsson (L)

                  Earlier tonight in Toronto, the Habs took on the Leafs in search of a win that would put the Habs 7 points back of 8th place in the conference. 9 minutes in, Eller had a shorthanded breakaway and he was stopped by Gustavsson. With under 2 minutes to play in the first, Cole came in on a 3 on 1 and he passed the puck to Plekanec and his shot missed the net, but it bounced off the boards and went right to Bourque in front of the net and he scored his first goal as a member of the Canadiens to make it 1-0. 30 seconds later, Lombardi had a breakaway and he scored to tie the game. 10 minutes into the second, Kessel took the puck from the left side to the slot and fired a shot and he was stopped by Carey Price.

          3 minutes into the third, Gomez played the puck to Diaz at the top of the circle and fired a slap shot on net and he scored to make it 2-1 Montreal leads. 8 minutes later, Eller brought the puck in over the line and went all the way around the net with it and fired a shot from a bad angle and it beat the Leafs goaltender and the Habs took a 3-1 lead. That would be your final as the Habs win their biggest game of the season and they now find themselves just 7 points out of the 8th and final playoff spot. Thats the good news, the bad news is that when a team is 7 points out of a playoff spot with 48 games played in the season, the chances of that team making the playoffs is just 10%.

          But you just never know. Just look back to the 2010 Round 1 Playoff series, the Habs were down 3 games to 1 against the Capitals in the series. No 8th ranked team has ever come back down such a margin in NHL history. But the Habs did and they won the series. So that just shows you that anythings possible. So don't count the Habs out of the playoffs just yet."There's still a light at the end there," forward Lars Eller said about the possibility of making the Post-season. "There are more than 30 games to go and we still have a lot of faith in this locker-room. We'll play one game at a time and see what happens."

        The Habs won this game against the Maple Leafs 3-1, tired and all after their 4-3 shootout loss on Friday against the Penguins. "That was probably the best bounce we've had all season," goalie Carey Price (who made 32 saves )said. "It was nice to be able to feel like we had luck on our side tonight." The Habs next game will be Wednesday night against the Red Wings at 7:38 Pm E.t is the NHL official puck drop time on TSN & RDS.

Written By Andrew Di Pardo