Carey Price showed why he’s one of the best goalies in the league Wednesday as the Blackhawks fell to the Canadiens, 3-1.
Two goals in less than two minutes was all it took for Montreal. The Blackhawks looked like they were rounding into regular season form, almost dominating the first two periods against Montreal, but they couldn’t capitalize early, then failed to complete the comeback in their last preseason game in Chicago.
Chicago got off to a solid start and set a quick pace to the game early on. Price had to make some quality saves, including a big one off a Duncan Keith shot in the first. The Blackhawks kept the momentum going in the second, getting nine shots off before Montreal even got their first shot on goal, with 10:20 left in the period.
There was a brief scare when Dale Weise ran into Antti Raanta in the second period. The collision looked awkward but Raanta quickly got up and it didn’t seem to affect his play any.
Here’s the collision between Weise and Raanta that just happened. https://t.co/ywaAbsU0I7
— Second City Hockey (@2ndCityHockey) October 2, 2014
Over the course of the second period, the Blackhawks peppered Price for 14 shots, but still couldn’t get one past him.
The start of the third was a total 180 from the first two periods for the Blackhawks. Montreal got on the board first when Rene Bourque slipped one past Raanta. The Hawks goalie just couldn’t find the puck and position himself to make the save in time.
Here’s the goal that put the Habs up 1-0. Raanta just couldn’t locate it and re-position fast enough. https://t.co/Sdq77YMmxO
— Second City Hockey (@2ndCityHockey) October 2, 2014
The Canadiens quickly got another one after that, as Nathan Beaulieu redirected a Drayson Bowman shot for the second Montreal goal in less than two minutes. It was a rough two minutes for Michal Rozsival, who got burned on the second of Montreal’s goals.
After Kris Versteeg negated a Blackhawks power play, Andrew Shaw scored 4-on-4 on a breakaway to cut the Canadiens’ lead in half. Brandon Saad tapped the puck to Shaw, who was able to wait until the last minute to elevate one past Price. Unfortunately, a Keith pass missed Saad and Montreal got an empty netter with 59 seconds left to end the Blackhawks’ chances at getting this one to overtime.
The team finishes up the preseason against the Rangers in New York on Friday at 6 p.m. After the loss Wednesday, the Hawks are now 2-3 in the preseason.