CANADIENS WIN 2ND STRAIGHT WITH A 3-2 SHOOTOUT WIN

GOAL SCORERS

PIT:   P. Dupuis (SHG, 01:03 - 3rd) , J. Neal (07:32 - 3rd)

MTL:   L. Leblanc (11:21 - 2nd) , L. Eller (03:00 - 3rd) , T. Plekanec (00:00 - SO)

GOALIES

PIT: M. Fleury (L)

 MTL: C. Price (W)

            Last night in Montreal, the Habs were looking for a much needed second straight win against the Penguins. 10 minutes into the second, Price came out of his net and played the puck up the boards, but the puck went to Malkin and he had an empty net and Subban dove back to keep the puck out. Plekanec had a breakaway going back the other way and he was stopped by the blocker of Fleury. 2 minutes later, LeBlanc came up the right wing and he fired the shot into the back of the net to make it 1-0. 1 minute into the third,  Vitale centred the puck and it went off the skate of Dupuis and in to tie the game. 2 minutes later, Eller dumped the puck in from the blue line and the puck snuck through the pads of Fleury and in to give the Habs a 2-1 lead. 4 minutes later, Malkin centred the puck to Neal and he scored to tie the game.

        This game would go to a shootout. Bourque was the first shooter and he scored over the glove of Fleury. Letang was stopped by Price. Pacioretty was next for the Habs and he was denied by Fleury. Malkin was next for the Penguins, he came in and did a spin a Rama and he scored. Then in the second round, Eller came in and scored to give the Habs a 2-1 shootout lead. Kunitz would tie the game. Plekanec was nexta dn he ripped a wrist shot past Fleury to give the habs a 3-2 lead. Williams was next and he went from forehand to backhand and he was stopped by the pad of Price and the Habs win 3-2! This was just their second win in a shootout this season. The other win came back in December against the Hurricanes. In the win, Price made 32 saves.

         "Carey was great again tonight," said Plekanec. "He gave us a chance to stay in the game and he was great again in the shootout. We were able to pay him back with that performance in the shootout." With this win, the Habs move from 15th to 13th and they now sit 10 points out of a playoff spot."We blew two leads but at the end of the day I thought we kept a really positive attitude on the bench," Price said. After the loss, where Fleury made 28 saves the Pens coach had  this to say about his performance in the loss:"He had four or five really big saves, really good scoring chances by their team," Bylsma said of Fleury.

        "They had some short-handed opportunities, a breakaway coming out of the box there after the power play - he made a number of huge saves for us and really stood strong. It was an unfortunate goal for the second one, but he played a very good game, making some big saves, especially in the first half of the game to keep it at zero."

Shootout
Rene Bourque	MTL	Goal
Kris Letang	PIT	Save
Max Pacioretty	MTL	Save
Evgeni Malkin	PIT	Goal
David Desharnais	MTL	Save
James Neal	PIT	Save
Erik Cole	MTL	Save
Cal O'Reilly	PIT	Save
Lars Eller	MTL	Goal
Chris Kunitz	PIT	Goal
Louis Leblanc	MTL	Save
Andrei Kostitsyn	MTL	Save
Tomas Plekanec	MTL	Goal
Jason Williams	PIT	Save

Written By Andrew Di Pardo