*Photo from the Toronto Star*
Series tied 1-1
The Montreal Canadiens knew they couldn't afford falling behind in the series 2-0 before heading back home. So they went out and did something about it. Tyler Toffoli scored, Paul Byron scored the game winning goal, and the Canadiens defeated the Vegas Golden Knights 3-2 on Wednesday night, evening up the series 1-1.
Canadiens head coach Dominique Ducharme said "It's a huge win for us. At the same time, though, we want to be more consistent. We started to play on our heels when we took the lead. That's something we want to fix. We need to be more consistent for 60 minutes. We want to play like we did in the first part of the game."
Joel Armia got the scoring started 6:12 into the first period, giving Montreal a 1-0 lead with his 5th goal of the playoffs. Toffoli extended the lead to 2-0 with 3:30 left in the first, on his 5th goal of the playoffs as well. With 2:15 remaining in the second period, Byron scored on a breakaway to give Montreal a 3-0 lead, which was enough to survive a late Vegas comeback attempt.
Carey Price stayed sturdy in net for the Canadiens, stopping 29 of 31 shots, for a .935 save percentage. The Canadiens also welcomed back D Jeff Petry to the lineup, who hadn't played since injuring his hand in game 3 against the Winnipeg Jets in the second round. He logged 20:47 of ice time.
Price said of what won game two that "I think we got a bounce. I liked our start last game and we had chances last game. You've got to give them credit. Fleury made some big saves early on in Game 1 and kept it even. But, tonight we got a bounce and we rode that momentum."
Marc-Andre Fleury had another solid outing in net for Vegas, but he was unable to outduel Price on the other end, despite saving 20 of 23 shots. With the loss, Vegas saw it's 5 game win streak snapped, which had dated back to their game 3 win in the second round against the Colorado Avalanche.
Alex Pietrangelo got Vegas on the board with 1:14 remaining in the second period, with his second goal of the playoffs making it a 3-1 Montreal lead. Pietrangelo scored again at the 14:46 mark in the 3rd period, his second goal of the night cutting it to 3-2 Montreal, but the Golden Knights couldn't get any more against Price.
Golden Knights captain Mark Stone said "We've been burnt before. We got burnt again tonight. You can't go down 2-0 and expect to win the game. The last two periods I thought we played pretty well, but chasing the game is not an easy task against anybody, but these guys play a good team game when they get the lead."
The series shifts to Montreal for games 3 and 4, with game 3 taking place on Friday night. Both teams will be aiming to take a 2-1 series lead on each other.
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