Carey Price’s first NHL start in Canada did not start well. Patrice Brisebois hopped on the ice just seconds after the opening face-off to relieve Mike Komisarek and just a few seconds into his opening shift he took a holding penalty sending the Ottawa to the early power play. Wade Redden capitalized almost right away scoring on the Senators first shot of the power play. Komisarek was the lone player in front of Price unintentionally providing a screen. Price rebounded well after the goal and appeared calm and cool as always playing the puck and making saves for the remainder of the period.
Guillaume Latendresse tied the game with a little less than three minutes left in the period. Tomas Plekanec had won a defensive zone face-off and worked hard with Tom Kostopoulos to get the puck deep into the Senators zone. Latendresse won the race for the puck in the corner and scored a fluky goal from the goal line. The period ended with the Canadiens out shooting but not necessarily out chancing the Senators 13-10.
Momentum shifted in the second period after the Canadiens were unable to clear the zone and the Senators busted loose firing 5 shots on Price in less than a minute. Price was fantastic stopping the first four shots but was unable to stop Nick Foligno’s first NHL goal after Roman Hamrlik’s give away. Eight minutes later the Senators extended the lead to 2. Danny Heatley tripped up Brisebois outside of the Senators blue line opening up a break away lane for himself, Alfredsson sent him in alone and he blasted his league leading 7th goal past Price, much to the chagrin of Brisebois who raised his arms in the air to protest.
Two minutes later while the Canadiens were enjoying their 2nd power play of the evening Michael Ryder finally potted his first goal collecting a Chris Higgins rebound that had hit the post; Saku Koivu also picked up an assist on the goal. Ottawa dominated the period and controlled much of the play out shooting the Habs 16-10.
The third period was a boring one to start out as Ottawa seemed comfortable to sit on a one goal lead and the Canadiens seemed uninterested in tying the game. In the final 9 minutes the Canadiens made a charge and earned a power play when Shean Donovan hooked Michael Ryder. Nothing was created until the final seconds of the power play when Brisebois sent a seeing eye pass to Alex Kovalev to the right of the net. Kovalev fired the puck behind a sprawling Gerber tying the game at three. Unfortunately for the Canadiens that did not last long; just 24 seconds later Jason Spezza collected Alfredsson’s rebound and put it into the top corner. Montreal pulled the goalie but could only manage 4 measly shots on goal in attempt to once again tie the game.
Three Stars
1. Alfredsson
2. Fisher
3. Phillips
Jonathanmmrebelo@hotmail.com