For the second night in a row, Brian Gionta scored the game-winning goal as the Montreal Canadiens capped a comeback effort with two points. Tuesday night it came against the Washington Capitals, and last night it came against the Florida Panthers by a score of 3-2.
Panthers Vs. Canadiens: Brian Gionta Does It Again, Montreal Comes Back For 3-2 Win
Scott Timmins opened the scoring with his first NHL goal, but 4:50 into the second period, Jeff Halpern's eighth of the season tied the score. Tomas Plekanec and Gionta added third period marks as the Habs passed the New York Rangers into sixth place in the East.
Adding injury to insult for the Panthers, the team’s single All-Star rep, Evgeny Dadonov, suffered a broken finger in the first period. According to the Miami Herald, he could miss some substantial time, and it goes without saying that would be bad for Florida.
Elsewhere in the NHL...
Vancouver 6, Phoenix 0: Okay, we get it. The Canucks are good. Ryan Kesler scored twice, Roberto Luongo made 23 saves and the 'Nucks added to their NHL-best record with yet another win. The Canucks have points in all but three games since the last week in November. That's a good way to win the Presidents' Trophy.
Los Angeles 3, Edmonton 1: The Oilers aren't good at a lot of things, the penalty kill being one of them. The Kings scored twice on the power play, both off the stick of former Oiler Ryan Smyth, en route to the 3-1 victory. Jon Quick made 32 saves while Nikolai Khabibulin continued an unbelievable stretch of 12 straight games without a point.
San Jose 4, Anaheim 3: When you score three goals in the first 12 minutes of a game to take a 3-0 lead, you should probably have things wrapped up pretty well. The Sharks jumped out to that lead on Wednesday night but slowly let their in-state rival Ducks back into the game as the evening progressed.
Joffrey Lupul, Cam Fowler and Bobby Ryan pulled Anaheim within one with about 15 minutes left in the third, but Antti Niemi held his ground and the Sharks passed the Ducks in the Western Conference standings as a result. They're currently tied with 60 points, but Anaheim has played one extra game.
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