MONTREAL - It was an unlikely moment on an improbable night.
A goalie getting a standing ovation - after allowing a goal.
They stood in the Bell Centre Monday night and the sound could probably be heard down in Washington.
The cheered Montreal Canadiens goaltender Jaroslav Halak after he was finally beaten with the Washington Capitals 52nd shot of the night, taking the moment to salute his overwhelming performance which helped force a seventh game between the eighth-seeded Habs and the regular season champion Caps.
In all, Halak made 53 saves in the Canadiens’ 4-1 win to send the Eastern Conference quarterfinal back to the American capital for Wednesday night’s deciding game.
The Canadiens got a pair of goals by Mike Cammalleri, more invincible goaltending from Halak, impeccable penalty killing - including a 5-on-3 kill for 75 seconds in the first period and an injection of intrigue and energy from the recall of 20-year-old rookie defenceman P.K. Subban to pull themselves all the way back into this series.
“Tonight was one of those superb (goaltending) performances. It’ll be on ESPN Classics or TSN Classics tomorrow,” said Cammalleri, who scored two goals a minute and 39 seconds apart in the first for a 2-0 Montreal lead, igniting the crowd.
Halak’s performance came on the heels of a 37-save performance Friday night in Game 5. That’s 90 saves on 92 shots in the last two games.
When asked if had ever seen a goaltending performance like Monday night’s, Cammalleri replied: "Yeah. There was one last game. His name was Halak and he did the same thing all over again. We’re going to need many more from him the rest of these playoffs.”
Was that Halak’s best performance he’s had in his career?
“We tied the series,” shrugged Halak. “We got one more game to play, do or die and we’ve got nothing to lose. They have to win and we can just surprise.”
The Canadiens head off to Washington with all the momentum in this series after back-to-back wins. They’ve won twice at Verizon Center in this series.
The Caps’ scoring stars - Alex Ovechkin, Alexander Semin, Tomas Fleischmann - were frustrated Monday night.
“You can see how we play. Just I think we played great we just didn’t score. There’s only one guy make them alive,” said Ovechkin, who had eight shots. “They score goals and they just go back and give all the pressure for their goalie. We just have to find a way to score goals, that’s it.”
The Canadiens went up 3-0 four minutes into the third period on Maxim Lapierre’s first goal of the playoffs, surviving two diving penalties called on Lapierre and another on forward Brian Gionta along the way. Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau said he wasn’t surprised the referees called the diving penalties.
“No, because they dive a lot. Lapierre has been called his whole life on diving so I’m not surprised. A matter of fact it’s a little grateful that they finally started calling it.”
Subban wound up playing 10 minutes and had an assist on Cammalleri’s second goal at 9:09 of the first.
“I felt pretty calm out there. I don’t feel I got too high. I didn’t feel like I froze up at all. I just wanted to play. Maybe it was because I played last night, I was already in game mode. You don’t really have much time to think about it. You’re playing and that’s it.”
Now, it’s back to Washington with the Caps wondering what’s happened and having to face questions about somehow being more ready than they’ve looked the last two games.
“I don’t know how to answer that, am I anymore ready? Frig, we’re ready,” said Boudreau. “We’re going to be as ready. We’ve been through it. I mean,how do I answer it? Help me out here? How do you answer that question? What do you do to get more ready? You don’t know.”
