Toews, Blackhawks beat Canadiens 5-2 for 11th straight win
Lightning 3, Panthers 1: Nikita Kucherov had two goals, and Tampa Bay extended a season-high winning streak to five games by beating Atlantic Division-leading Florida. He brought Montreal to within a goal in the third period Sunday, but Patrick Kane restored Chicago’s two-goal lead 71 seconds later.
“It wasn’t the performance we were looking for after such a hard-fought, emotional game last night”, Pacioretty said. “I have confidence in Michel Therrien and the players, there’s no doubt about that”.
Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said the Hawks have been playing good situational hockey during the winning streak. But just over a minute later the Blackhawks restored their two-goal lead, with Artemi Panarin feeding Kane at 11:33. They kill (penalties), they make plays in tight. “They have some really, really quality hockey players over there”. They are 4-14-1 since December 3 and they have failed to score more than two goals in 13 of those losses. Philipp Grubauer replaced Holtby late in the second period and stopped all 11 shots he faced.
Jonathan Toews has scored a goal in each of his last three games against the Canadiens.
Montreal allowed the game’s first goal on Chicago’s second shot on net, which came just 2:40 into the first period.
Toews scored again to increase Chicago’s lead to 3-1 with 1:21 remaining in the second period.
The Canadiens are led in scoring by Max Pacioretty and Tomas Plekanec, who has four points in as many games, including a goal and assist against the Blues. He received the puck behind the net and beat Scrivens on a backhand shot for his 19th goal.
When the Canadiens lost nine of 10 games in December, general manager Marc Bergevin met with the media to say the thought of firing Therrien had never crossed his mind.
“In 2013, we had an unbelievable stretch, but right now, definitely it’s another one”, Hossa said.
“There were some times in the game where it felt like we weren’t at our best”, Pacioretty said. Canadiens RW Devante Smith-Pelly and D Greg Pateryn were healthy scratches for the third consecutive game….
In Anaheim, Anze Kopitar had a goal and an assist, Vincent Lecavalier added a power-play goal and Los Angeles opened the Freeway Faceoff rivalry series for the season with a victory over the Ducks. The Canadiens also dropped to 6-15-2 since star goaltender Carey Price was shelved by a lower-body injury in November. The Blackhawks reassigned LW Bryan Bickell to the AHL’s Rockford IceHogs on Sunday. Rob Scuderi will be a healthy scratch. Canadiens forward Dale Weise was within checking distance of Chicago’s Erik Gustafsson, but he made an ineffective poke at the puck and let Gustafsson breeze right by before setting up an unmarked Richard Panik in the slot.