Habs grind one at home.

The Montreal Canadiens and the Chicago Blackhawks, two of the original six NHL clubs were facing each other tonight at the Bell centre in Montreal.

The home team was trying to improove on the weak home outings as only a few teams have kept a worse record than the Canadiens at home in this first half of this 2007-2008 season.

Montreal opened the score with Saku Koivu’s 8th goal of the season but the equalizer from the Hawks came only 1:24 later as Jack Skille scored the first NHL goal of his career. Before the end of the first frame, defensemen Patrice Brisebois gave the lead to Montreal with his second goal of the season on the power play.

2-1 for Montreal after one period of play.

Only two minutes into the second period, the Hawks struck twice inside a 17 seconds span and took a 3-2 lead. Robert Lang followed by Kris Vertseeg sent a cold shower into the attendance, a very loud one until that very point. But before the second period was over, defensemen Andrei Markov had tied the game at 3-3 registering his 11th goal of the season.

Nobody between the two teams was able to add to the score until the overtime period. At 3:18 into the overtime, Maxim Lapierre entered the Chicago defensive zone while Guillaume Latendresse rushed towards the net untouched. A brilliant pass from Lapierre who helped Guillaume Latendresse on his 12th of the season, the game-winning goal for the Habs.

Final score: Montreal Canadiens 4 - Chicago Blackhawks 3 (overtime)



-Carey Price and Kyle Chipchura sent to the Hamilton Bulldogs.-

Earlier today, Montreal Canadiens’ general manager Bob Gainey has sent goaltender Carey Price and forward Kyle Chipchura to the club’s AHL farm team, the Hamilton Bulldogs. The solid return of Christobal Huet and the frequency of his usage by head coach Guy Carbonneau surely counted in the decision. The team cannot afford to shelf Carey Price for a long period of time.

This will allow the young 20-year old goaltender to put more starts under his belt instead of being forced to watch the action from the end of the players bench. Price has kept a 9-7 record with the Canadiens this season.

To fill the spots available, goaltender Jaroslav Halak and forward Corey Locke are called up with the NHL club. Maybe the idea behind this for Bob Gainey is to show Jaroslav Halak around in the NHL in order to increase his value on the market. The goaltender asked for a trade a few months ago. Halak has shown some consistency in his short trip in the NHL late last season with the Canadiens.

(Picture: Guillaume Latendresse, Canadian Press.)