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The Montreal Canadiens and Florida Panthers entered their game Thursday trying to overcome struggles closing out games strong and holding onto leads. Each team had lost three of their last four games before facing off against one another, and both clubs were hoping to get things turned around.
On the bright side, they both succeeded in finishing out the game strong defensively. The only problem: neither team remembered to start fast on offense as Carey Price and Jose Theodore both rode shutouts into overtime in an eventual 1-0 overtime win for Montreal.
Price made 26 saves for his 17th career shutout and second against the Panthers. He coasted through the first two periods, turning away just 14 shots, but had to pick up the pace in the third. Florida finally found an offensive attack that worked and sent 13 shots to the net, including a barrage about eight minutes into the period where Price turned away five shots from in close in less than a minute.
Theodore was just as good against his former club, even though he came out with the loss. He stopped 31 shots on the night, and kept Florida in the game even as the play in front of him broke down in the first two periods. He saved a potential goal with 2:15 left in the first with a glove save on a Brandon Prust from point-blank range. Eventually, however, he let one slip past.
That came 2:10 into overtime off the stick of Rene Bourque. It wasn’t a glamorous wind-up shot that sealed the win, but a tip-in of a bouncing puck just in front of the net. It was a sloppy, ugly goal that fit the style of play of the entire game from everyone not wearing a goalie mask. Even Bourque admitted there wasn’t a lot of style to it, saying “I was just trying to whack it somewhere.”
For Montreal, it’s their second straight win on the road after losing three straight, but it’s also the fifth straight game they’ve allowed an Eastern Conference opponent to escape with at least one point. In a shortened season like this one, that inability to shutout opponents will allow teams to linger in the playoff picture and could come back to hurt Montreal down the road. That could leave the Habs at home when the race for the Stanley Cup begins.
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