San Jose came into Montreal trying to right things on their play away from home. Montreal, hanging on to a precious playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, was hoping the play of their backup goaltender Jaroslav Halak would continue to be strong as he and the Canadiens were riding a 3 game win streak. Both teams accomplished their goals, as the Sharks dominated the game offensively, putting 46 shots on goal to Montreal's 21, but a fight in the first sparked a 3 goal period for the Canadiens, and Halak stole the win from San Jose as the Canadiens defeated the Sharks 3-2 in Montreal.
San Jose came out shooting early and often against the Canadiens and Halak. But 7 minutes into the game, Jody Shelley and Georges Laraque fought, and Laraque won the decision. The Canadiens found a spark in their offensive game, and scored all 3 of their goals in the second half of the first period following the fight. Andrei Markov scored his 9th goal of the game, blasting a shot from the blue line past Brian Boucher on the power play to make it 1-0. Then, Matt D'Agostini found the puck behind the San Jose net, and made a no-look pass right on Josh Gorges's stick for an easy goal to make it 2-0. Then at the end of the first, Saku Koivu scored his 11th goal of the season to make it 3-0 going into the second.
But the Sharks didn't change their game plan, and it nearly paid off. An early interference penalty on the Canadiens gave San Jose their first power play of the game, and Joe Pavelski found a rebound off of Halak and put it in the net to put the Sharks on the board. Then, under a minute later, Joe Thorton received a pass from behind the Montreal net by Patrick Marleau. Thorton shot it off the crossbar, but the puck hit the back of Halak and bounced in over the line. The Sharks continued to pour it on for the rest of the game, outshooting the Canadiens 33-11 in the last 40 minutes of the game. San Jose had several chances to tie and even win the game, as one-timers by Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Thorton rang off the crossbar in the second, and Marleau shot the puck past Halak's legs, but it bounced off the post and back out. Montreal had their 5 best defensive players on the ice for most of the third period, and Halak made several outstanding saves to keep the puck out of the net and win the game for the Canadiens.
San Jose finally found their offensive stride, but the stole was stolen by Halak, who started the last 4 games for the Canadiens, including starting back to back games after playing last night against Philadelphia in a game that went to overtime. Halak and the Montreal Canadiens won all 4 games. San Jose registered 46 shots on goal, which was the 18th time they put at least 40 shots on goal in a game this season. The 44 saves by Halak was his 3rd highest save total in his career. Both Detroit and Boston lost their games today, so San Jose still remains in first place in both the Western Conference and the NHL, but they now share the league lead at 93 points with Boston, whose loss came in overtime. The win for Montreal moves them to within 1 point out of 4th place in the East behind Philadelphia. During Hockey Night in Canada, CBC interviewed Sharks General Manager Doug Wilson, who stated that he was not keen to make a trade by the NHL trade deadline Wednesday, unless an injury or suspension forces him to do so. Brian Boucher got his second consecutive start because Evgeni Nabokov had the flu, which has been going around the league. San Jose ends their Eastern Conference road trip and will play their next game at home Tuesday night against the Dallas Stars, whom they have defeated all 4 times they've faced them this season.
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