World Junior Hockey Championships day 6

The prelim round is now over for many teams. USA won a nailbiter in overtime and qualifies for quarterfinals.
Canada won again today and finishes prelims with a record of 4-0, going directly to the semifinals.

Here are day 6 results:

Canada 3 - Slovakia 0
USA 3 - Sweden 2 (OT)
Russia 5 - Finland 0

A happy new year to everyone!

The year 2006 is over, let the celebrations begin, happy new year everyone.

May 2007 bring health, wealth and love to you all.

Bad trip

The Montreal Canadiens went to Florida Friday and Saturday to face the Florida Panthers and the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Habs lost the 2 games by the score of 3-1 and.... 3-1.

A very bad trip in Florida, now the team have lost 3 of last 4 games, is this a sign that the Habs will go in a longer slump? Stay tuned!

World Junior Hockey Championships day 5

Today the host team, Sweden qualified for the medal run with a 3-1 victory over Germany. Nothing is broken for the germans, they still can place themselves in the medal run.

Scores of day 5:

Sweden 3 - Germany 1
USA 6 - Slovakia 1

Canada finishes prelims against Slovakia who will be out of the medal round.

World Junior Hockey Championships day 4

Canada remains undefeated, goes directly to the semifinals as they fought hard to get that 3-1 win over the very solid german team who kept the score close all game long. Canadian goaltender Carey Price, property of the Montreal Canadiens made some very key saves during the time the score was still 2-1.

Results of day 4:

Russia 6 - Belarus 1
Canada 3 - Germany 1

The end of the prelim phase will be Sunday, everyone will be then set for the medal round.

World Junior Hockey Championships day 3

Today was day 3 of the prelims of the World Junior Hockey Championships. Host team Sweden got their first win of the tournament after a humble start. Russia did not find valuable opponents as they shutout the Swiss.

Here are day 3 results:

Russia 6 - Switzerland 0
Finland 6 - Czech republic 2
Sweden 6 - Slovakia 3

Canada (2-0) faces early surprize of the tournament, the (2-0) German team tomorrow. 1st place of the pool is at stake.

Habs capitalized in D.C.

The Montreal Canadiens have defeated the Washington Capitals pretty easily by the score of 4-1.

The team is on a good streak as they keep the pace of the best teams in the league. Mathieu Dandenault, Aaron Downey, Saku Koivu and Sheldon Souray in an empty net scored for Montreal. Christobal Huet did well once again in net and picked up another win.

The Habs have won 6 of their last 7 games.

World Junior Hockey Championship day 2

After a good start, Canada was involved again yesterday in the championship. Germany surprized with a win over the U.S. and yesterday they have surprized even more with a 2nd win in a row.

Here are day 2 results:

Germany 4 - Slovakia 2
Swiss 4 - Belarus 1
Canada 6 - USA 3

Next game for Canada is against the surprizing Germany who are also a perfect 2-0 thru 2 rounds.

World Junior Hockey Championships

The world junior hockey championships competition began yesterday and Canada was off to a good start as they defeated the host team Sweden 2-0.

A few surprizes already in the first day with unexpected upsets...

here are the results of day 1:

Canada 2 - Sweden 0
Germany 2 - USA 1
Belarus 4 - Finland 3
Russia 3 - Czech rep. 2

The Dec 23rd drought

The Montreal Canadiens were defeated 4-2 in Boston against the Bruins. Montreal see their win streak stopped at 5. The last time Montreal won a game on the road on Dec 23rd was in 1945...

So following that logic the Bruins scored 2 quick goals and got away with the 4-2 win. Tim Thomas the winning goaltender, Christobal Huet got an assist on a SH goal (the 11th SHG of the team) and the loss.

At the Xmas break, the Montreal Canadiens have a great spot in the conference, everybody around the team is satisfied. Fans (and journalists) begins to fantasize already...

Montreal 4 - Philadelphia 2

The Montreal Canadiens have now won 5 straight games, this time a 4-2 win over the Philadelphia Flyers at the Bell Centre. At the opposite from the Habs, the Flyers are having their worst season in franchise history, will likely miss the playoffs and even the new coach in place lately haven't solved the problems.

Again the power play was the main weapon of the Habs yesterday... they scored 2 PPG in the 1st period to never look behind for the rest of the contest. Guillaume Latendresse, Craig Rivet, Chris Higgins scored for Montreal.

Goaltender David Aebisher did just enough in the net to get the win.

Habs 5 points away from 1st

The Montreal Canadiens defeated the Buffalo Sabres 5-2 at the HSBC Centre in Buffalo. After giving up a quick goal, the Habs scored 3 unanswered goals in the 1st period. The power play is now ranked Number 1 in the NHL... and again tonight it looked like it.

Chris Higgins in his 2nd game back from injury scored 2 goals ,one on the power play, rookie Maxim Lapierre scored his 3rd goal in his last 3 games and Alex Kovalev scored on the power play. Christobal Huet winning again, was solid in net yesterday.

With this win Montreal is only 5 points behind Buffalo and the 1st place of the Eastern conference.

Fatal 2nd period for the Penguins

The Montreal Canadiens exploded with 4 unanswered goals in the 2nd period yesterday at the Bell Centre defeating Sydney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins 6-3.

After the first period the Penguins looked like they were cruising to a easy win, outshot the Habs 17-3 and led 2-1. But the 2nd period explosion from the Habs changed the face of the game, Montreal dominated the rest of the contest to win.

Saku Koivu scored 2 goals once again (his 4th 2-goal game in December).

Montreal scored 4 power play goals in 7 occasions. Only 7 points separate the Habs from 1st position in the Eastern conference.

Next game for Montreal will be in Buffalo, a win for Montreal in this game would heat up the race for 1st place.

Someone call 911: Habs robbed Tampa.

After being outshot 33-10 after 2 periods, the Montreal Canadiens scored 3 goals in the 3rd period and upseted the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-2 at the Bell Centre.

The only reason the team was only down by 1 goal after 2 periods was because of the brilliant play of goaltender Christobal Huet who blocked 41 of the 43 shots he faced in the evening.

The 3rd period awakening came from Maxim Lapierre who scored his first NHL goal of his young career tipping a shot from the blue line. Then a bit later Saku Koivu scored a shorthanded goal (the team's league leading 9th SHG of the season) the goal seemed to break Tampa's spirit, then Koivu scored the empty net goal with 45 seconds to go to secure the win.

Next game for Montreal is saturday night, hosting the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Winning one for Bob...

After the shocking weekend news, the Montreal Canadiens played their first game since the Laura Gainey accident. Sergei Samsonov played his best game of the season, scored 2 goals and was very effective in the Montreal Canadiens 4-3 victory over the Boston Bruins.

Samsonov was in a major slump, his last goal dated in october, picked his game up and finally gave some positive signs to the team. Guillaume Latendresse scored the winning goal, David Aebisher the winning goaltender also broke a long slump by finally winning a game as a starter.

Marc Savard was the best Boston player, participating in all of the 3 Boston goals with 2 goals and 1 assist in the game.

Laura Gainey lost in sea.

Montreal Canadien's GM Bob Gainey left his duties to Pierre Gauthier for some days. His daughter Laura Gainey has been lost at sea. 10 meters waves have been reported at the accident time. Searches are to be abandoned right about now. (18:00PM) She, unless some kind of miracle, is now presumed dead.

Every one in the locker agreed that they were all with Bob in these bad times. No other relevant comment could possibly come from anyone.

Buffalo 3 - Montreal 2 (SO)

A very evenely matched back and forth game had to be decided in the shootout yesterday at the Bell Centre as the Buffalo Sabres defeated the Montreal Canadiens 3-2. The Habs played a solid game against the 1st place team as this could be an intense matchup if those two teams would end up face to face in the playoffs.

After leading 1-0 and 2-1 the Sabres allowed Sheldon Souray to score on the power play to even up the score in the 3rd period. Then Souray left the game with a wrist injury after being pounded in the boards. His case is to be evaluated this week by the medical staff.

Daniel Briere and Thomas Vanek scored for Buffalo in the shootout and only Alex Kovalev could score on the winning goaltender Ryan Miller.

Captain Saku scores 2

Saku Koivu added 2 goals to his total and helped the Montreal Canadiens defeat the New-York Islanders 4-2. The Habs snap their 2-game losing streak (the longest of the season) and keep themselves in 4th place of the Eastern conference.

Guillaume Latendresse scored his 6th goal of the season and defensemen Craig Rivet scored his 3rd of the season the other goals for the Canadiens. Christobal Huet did well after giving an early goal to the Islanders early in the 1st period. Rick DiPietro was the losing goaltender in this one.

Next game for the Habs is saturday at the Bell centre against the 1st place Buffalo Sabres.

New-Jersey 2 - Montreal 1 (OT)

The New-Jersey Devils scored the winning goal with 7 seconds to go in the overtime period to defeat the Montreal Canadiens at the Continental airline arena. The Habs have not won in this building since february of 2002, a very long drought.

Montreal took the lead in the 1st period when Radek Bonk surprised goaltender Martin Brodeur, then Montreal led the game for the most part of the game. The Devils were able to tie the game up with just over 5 minutes to go to the 3rd period when Zach Parise beat David Aebisher who was screened by his own defensemen.

Then in overtime, Sheldon Souray hooked down an opponent with only 12 seconds to go to the overtime but there was enough time left for Patrick Elias to score on the power play to end the game.

Nexy game for the Habs is today at Long Island versus the New-York Islanders.

Boston 6 - Montreal 5

The Boston Bruins defeated the Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Centre by the score of 6-5. After the match everyone in the Habs lockeroom called this game a bizarre one.

After trailing 4-1 the team managed once again to rally and tie the game up at 4-4, then Boston took the lead once again 5-4 but Sheldon Souray tied it up again at 5-5 on the power play. And with under 2 minutes to go Brad Stuart scored his 2nd goal of the game on the power play to give Boston the 6-5 win.

Tim Thomas picked up the win, David Aebisher who replaced Christobal Huet after the 4th Boston goal picked up the loss.

Montreal 4 - Toronto 3 (SO)

The Montreal Canadiens were trailing 3-1 in the 3rd period at the hands of the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Bell Centre when Saku Koivu scored twice to even up the score at 3-3. The overtime period didn't solve the tie and Montreal picked up the win in the shootout.

This win is precious to the team because nobody expected the Habs to even up the score among the fans... the crowd was quiet and upset before Koivu lit the lamp twice. Christobal Huet was solid again and kept his team in the game, and eventually picked up the win.

Montreal keeps themselves in 4th position of the Eastern conference.

Barrage of shots in Raleigh.

The Carolina Hurricanes have defeated the Montreal Canadiens by a score of 4-2 yesterday at the RBC Center in Raleigh. The only reason that Montreal was still in the game halfway in the 3rd period is because goaltender Christobal Huet did the major part of the work.

Huet must've been exhausted after the game, the Hurricanes registered a total of 48 shots on his net during the game. For the Hurricanes, Cam Ward had a pretty easy night in the net.Eric Cole managed to score twice, Justin Williams registered the game-winning goal and Eric Belanger completed the work for Carolina. Michael Ryder and Tomas Plekanec scored for Montreal in the losing cause.

With Ottawa and Boston's wins yesterday, the standings in the Eastern conference gets very tight and promises a very close battle for the last 2 or 3 playoff spots.