Despite not getting a shutout, the Canadiens did two great things on the night.
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Tomas Fleischmann paced the Montreal offense with two goals and an assist in a 5-1 win over Winnipeg at the Bell Centre. “We help each other”. He’s an important element of the team, but he’s a part of the team. “I don’t think anyone can”, the 25-year-old Condon said. Combine Winnipeg’s shaky goaltending with a Montreal team that has been terrific this season and you have a recipe for disaster.
Fleischmann made it 3-0 Montreal just 35 seconds into the middle frame with his second goal of the game. A few short, quick passes got the puck out of the Canadiens’ end and up to the winger, who snapped a shot from the right faceoff dot for his fourth of the season. “We’ve got four lines that can score, and that’s something that we’ve never had before”.
Chris Thorburn scored for Winnipeg (7-4-1).
Montreal G Carey Price missed his first game after being placed on injured reserved retroactive to Thursday, following an injury sustained against the Oilers in Edmonton…. He backstopped Montreal to a 6-2 win in Calgary on Friday night.
Another chance on the man advantage came for the Canadiens, as they would try to improve their power play unit while increasing their chances of victory.
Habs head coach Michel Therrien told the media at morning skate the injury was not serious. “They don’t give you a whole lot off the rush; very, very few odd-man rushes, if any”. “They were really good”.
Jeff Petry stopped a Winnipeg entry into the Canadiens’ end, allowing Torrey Mitchell to get the puck up the ice. The Predators, coming off a 4-3 overtime defeat at Los Angeles the previous night, lost consecutive games for the first time this season.
“I’m not going to try and be Carey”. He is becoming one of the best backup goaltenders in the National Hockey League. “We’ve got to help him out a little bit more”. But should we feel sorry for ourselves that we play in front of him? But we’ve got to show that.
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The Canadiens have done that since Plekanec said those words, but they also had the comfort of knowing Price was back there if they ever faltered.
