The Montreal Canadiens were trying to put the Pittsburgh Penguins on the brink of elimination. The first two games were pretty even with both teams getting a win, so game three would decide a lot. History stat-wise shows teams who win game three in a best of five win the series 75% of the time.
The first period started with a flourish for Montreal as off the opening draw, the Habs saw an early scoring chance, but Matt Murray would make a great blocker save. It was speculated Brendan Gallagher wouldn’t be in the lineup on Wednesday due to a foot injury he suffered on Monday, but in typical Gallagher style, he decided to play.
He was labouring a bit early on, but he showed he had no quit in him and continued to be the emotional leader of the team. Montreal would get the game’s first goal five minutes into the opening frame when Shea Weber took not one, but two shots on net before a loose rebound was put in the empty side of the net.
Pittsburgh would challenge the goal for goaltender interference, but upon review, the goal would stand and the Penguins were assessed a delay of game penalty for losing the challenge. At this point of the game, it was all Montreal while Pittsburgh hadn’t even registered a shot on goal yet.
But that was about to change as the Canadiens would get their first penalty of the game when Ben Chiarot was sent off for slashing. The Penguins power play is always dangerous and always seems to motivate them and Wednesday was no different.
The Penguins started to dictate play on the man advantage and started throwing everything at the net, but Carey Price would stand tall in net. The Penguins would tie the game a minute later when Patric Hornqvist got a great pass and managed to find a hole to put one past Price.
It got worse for Montreal as Shea Weber was sent to the box on a delayed call for cross-checking. It didn’t take long for the Penguins to convert as 30 seconds into the man advantage, Jason Zucker got a great feed from Evgeni Malkin and beat Price to give his team the lead on the Habs.
With seven seconds left in the period, the Canadiens power play went back to work when Connor Sheary was called for tripping. The man advantage would carry into the game’s middle frame.
The Penguins would be able to kill it off early on in the second and then would respond by adding to their lead when Teddy Bluger put a loose puck past Price. This would double their lead, going up 3-1 nearly six minutes in. Minutes later, Pittsburgh got another penalty when John Marino would get penalized for holding.
Jonathan Drouin would make the Penguins pay as the Canadiens would finally score on the power play. That saw Drouin tip a Ben Chiarot shot just past Matt Murray to cut Pittsburgh’s lead to one. There would be a scary moment to follow as Habs rookie Jake Evans, who was playing his first NHL playoff game, got levelled to the ground by Brandon Tanev, going face first into the boards.
He would skate off the ice to the dressing room and did not return for the rest of the game. As play resumed, the Penguins would get another costly penalty when Evgeni Malkin was called for tripping. This gave the advantage to Montreal, who as a result, would tie the game up at 3. They did so as Paul Byron took a wraparound attempt and on the second rebound, buried the puck with just four minutes left.
We got a sense that Montreal was starting to get back in the game after starting off slow, letting Pittsburgh dominate.
We enter the game’s final frame, and this time, it was the Penguins’ turn to have a scoring opportunity off the opening face-off. However, Price was on his game and managed to make another amazing save. The Penguins got into more penalty trouble when Zach Aston-Reese was called for roughing.
Just as his penalty was expiring, Jeff Petry, from the side of the net, took a perfect wrist shot that beat Murray top shelf. It bounced off his mask in the process and gave Montreal a 4-3 lead in the third. Montreal had a chance to add to their lead when Gallagher and Nick Suzuki went on a two-on-one, but not for long as it was stopped by Matt Murray.
With three minutes left in the game, Paul Byron took an untimely penalty, and at this point, the Penguins held a perfect record on the man advantage. The Canadiens managed to kill the penalty in the game’s final minutes, defeating Pittsburgh 4-3. That would see Montreal take a 2-1 lead in the series over Pittsburgh.
This was a huge come from behind win, and now, the Canadiens have a chance to advance to round one with a victory on Friday. Watch out for the altered start time which has now been bumped a few hours to 4:00pm. Given the opportunity at hand, the Habs will put it all on the line to secure their spot in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
The game is available for viewing on Sportsnet Ontario, NHL.TV and NBCSN, meanwhile, it can be heard via radio on TSN 690 and 98.5fm. It will also be carried in Canadiens region on TVA Sports to be watched in French.