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The Canadiens and the Devils play the second half of a back to back, home and home series. The first game ended in a 1-1 tie. Tonight Jose Theodore gets the start for the Canadiens as he looks to duplicate the performance of M.Garon from last night. Martin Brodeur goes for career win #400 for the second night in a row.
Lines for Tonight:
Perreault – Koivu – Zednik
Dagenais – Ribeiro – Kovalev
Bulis – Dowd – Ryder
Sundstrom – Begin – Ward
Souray – Komisarek
Markov – Rivet
Dykhuis – Boullion
Theodore
1st Period
No Scoring
Notes: Devils carried the play in the period, if not for Theodore the devils would be up 1, or maybe 2 goals. Devils had the lone PP in the period but the Canadiens killed the penalty easily. Shots after one 12-8 in favour of the Devils.
2nd Period
1-0 Habs: Ryder scores his 23rd goal of the year. Ryder works hard along the boards on the right side of the ice, wins the scrum for the puck, skates into a better shooting position, then beats Brodeur high on the short side with a hard wrist shot. Ryder unassisted.
Notes: Shots are 20-16 Devils after 2 periods. Devils had another powerplay in the 2nd, but again failed to score. The Canadiens finally got their chance on the powerplay with 1:02 left in the period, they did not score and will have :58 remaining on the PP to start the 3rd.
3rd Period
2-0 Habs: Whole play starts in Canadiens zone, Bouillon lays out Brylin with a thunderous open ice hit, Theodore then makes a great stop on Kozlov. The puck leaves the Habs zone, Bulis carries it into the Devils zone, creates some space for himself, finds an open Ryder to the left of him, Ryder takes the puck, fakes the shot, outwaits Niedermayer who falls for it, Ryder shoots to the far side of the net and beats Brodeur, the puck was tipped by Dowd before going in, but the goal was a result of the great work by Ryder. Dowd from Ryder and Bulis.
2-1 Devils Goal: Madden gets the Devils on the board with a shorthanded goal. Souray makes a bad pinch, and it fails which leaves Kovalev as the lone man back. Madden streaks down the left side of the ice and beats Theodore on the blocker side with a great shot.
3-1 Habs: Devils pull Brodeur, Kovalev emerges from scrum for puck in habs zone, skates past redline and flips puck into open net.
3-2 Devils Goal: Its not over yet. Sundstrom gets a 4 minute high sticking game with under 2 minutes left in game. Brylin scores on the PP, beats Theodore high blocker side. Devils were on a 6 on 4 because they pulled Brodeur.
Notes: Kovalev finally gets his first goal in a Canadiens uniform, you could see the relief in his face after he scored it. Tonight the Devils went 1/4 on the PP, Habs 0/2. Final shots were 35-25 NJ.
GAME OVER: Habs win 3-2
