Habs Hold On to Beat Sens 2-1 – NHL Scores – November 5, 2011

CFN –  Montreal held on and defeated the Ottawa Senators 2-1 Friday night at Scotia Bank Place.  It was a gritty affair and had some interesting moments.    Yannick Weber had over 20 minutes of ice time for the Habs showing how he’s maturing as a defenseman.  No more playing left wing.   He also got some time on both special teams.

Erik Cole and Andrei Kostitsyn scored for Montreal and Josh Gorges made a play on Jason Spezza that sparked the team coming back and breaking up a huge scoring chance for Ottawa’s number one weapon.

Carey Price kicked out 34 of 35 shots on goal, but Montreal also blocked 19 which is a huge red flag for Montreal.  They have to find a way to limit scoring chances against them.    Going way back to the 90’s when I worked for the Habs my philosophy was always that  the more time you spend in the offensive zone taking shots the more games you’ll win.

Montreal needs to draw more penalties too, and that won’t happen with the dump and chase.

Scott Gomez is creating a lot of buzz.  Frankly this team is on a winning role without him.   The veteran centre has a huge monkey to get off his back after starting the season with 1 assist in six games even though he played some good hockey.

Montreal was horrible in the face off circle last night with Ottawa winning 35 to Montreal’s 20.

Washington beat Carolina 5-1.  No goals for Alex Ovechkin.  Roman Hamrlik was +2 for the night.   Buffalo 2 Calgary 1;  Steve Stamkos notched a hat trick helping Tampa Bay to a 5-4 win over Chicago.   Vinny Lecavlier scored the winner in OT.

TJ Oshie’s 2 goals clipped the Canucks as they lost to St. Louis 3-2 and the game of the night was Colorado and Dallas having a shoot out in Texas with the Stars coming out on top 7-6.  Matt Duchene had 3 goals for the Avalanche.