On Saturday night, the Montreal Canadiens’ Jeff Petry scored with 6:03 left in the extra session to give the Habs a 3-2 win in game one of their series with the Pittsburgh Penguins.
“It’s something that we’ve talked about, the D to follow up the play, to support the attack offensively,” Petry said. “I just saw the puck kind of pop out. I had my opportunity to jump there. I was going to walk into a shot, but they kind of closed it off so I took the extra second to pull it in and get the shot off.”
Montreal held a 2-0 lead in the game before the Pens stormed back to tie in the middle frame.
Neither team was able to break through again until Petry’s goal.
Carey Price made 39 saves to grab the victory.
The two-goal lead came off strikes by Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Nick Suzuki.
“It’s a definitely a different setting,” Suzuki said. “Just having that first game to kind of see what it’s all about. But coming into this game, I think that we had a lot of confidence and a good jump off the start.”
Sidney Crosby and Bryan Rust helped the Pens rally to force the extra session.
“You never like to lose Game 1,” Rust said. “There’s obviously lessons to be learned. At the end of the day, it’s a marathon, not a sprint. I think as long as our team comes back tomorrow, tries to learn some lessons and keep getting better from game to game, I think that’s just going to give us the best chance to win.”
[WATCH:Â All Canadiens vs. Penguins highlights]
Matt Murray made 32 saves in the loss.
“Guys did a really good job of not panicking,” Murray said. “Sticking to the game plan. Getting back into the game.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.