Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Sunday, February 25, 2007 - Tuesday, February 27, 2007

This was a surprise birthday trip that Jill planned for me - and what an awesome surprise it was!! All I knew is that we were going away for a couple of days. When we got in the car to leave, she handed me a couple of presents. In one, there were snacks for the ride. In another, there was a Frommer's guide for Montreal and Quebec, as well as a bunch of information about Montreal that she had printed out from the internet; and then, the piece de resistance! Tickets for one of the greatest sports rivalries of all times in one of the most historic hockey cities ever!! Tickets for the Montreal Canadians versus the Toronto Maple Leafs on my birthday!!

We headed north along route 88, which of course took us through Oneonta - and you know my credo about Oneonta! Can't pass through there without stopping at Brooks House of BBQ. After lunch there, we continued on our way. The drive this time was a lot better than the last (see our Quebec trip in 2006!). We pulled into Montreal late evening on Sunday and made our way to the Sofitel Montreal at 1155 Sherbrooke Ouest - a great find by Jill! Very characteristic of the boutique hotels that we like to stay at, conveniently located in downtown Montreal. After getting settled into our room, we headed to rue Crescent Street for some dinner. There were a lot of bars and restaurants there, most local type's. Not knowing what was good, what wasn't good, and what the food would actually be like, we found the one chain restaurant on the street and picked that for dinner - the Hard Rock Cafe. After dinner it was back to the hotel to hunker down for a good nights sleep in anticipation of sightseeing the next day.

MONTREAL (AP) -The Montreal Canadiens' potent power-play unit scored enough to hold off Toronto's comeback bid.

Sheldon Souray had his team-leading 22nd goal and Montreal got three goals with the man advantage in a 5-4 victory over the Maple Leafs on Monday night.

Saku Koivu and Michael Ryder assisted on each other's power-play scores, Tomas Plekanec and Mike Johnson scored at even strength, and David Aebischer made 32 saves to help the Canadiens move up to seventh in the Eastern Conference with 72 points.

Montreal went 3-for-4 on the power play, improving its conference-leading success rate to 23.2 per cent.

"We didn't waste any of them, that's for sure," Johnson said. "They're an offensive team, they're a team that attacks and we knew that despite being down three going into the third they were going to come back hard and they managed to get a couple. But we settled things down in the last 10 minutes and tried to limit their quality chances."

Bates Battaglia, Bryan McCabe, Jeremy Williams and Alex Steen scored for Toronto, which remained 10th in the conference. The Maple Leafs have 69 points, one behind the ninth-place New York Islanders and two behind defending champion Carolina for the eighth and final playoff spot.

"Our first period wasn't very good and our second wasn't any better," Steen said. "We came out jumping in the third period. We had a couple of good chances in the first couple of shifts and then got a quick goal. We were trying to battle back but if you don't play a full 60 minutes, it's going to cost you."

Alex Kovalev assisted on Plekanec's first-period goal as he returned to the Canadiens' lineup after missing seven games because of an elbow injury.

Toronto's Andrew Raycroft stopped 11 of 16 shots before leaving 12:24 into the second after Souray drove a slap shot past him into the top of the net off a faceoff as Montreal scored its third power-play goal just 2 seconds into its third opportunity to take a 5-2 lead.

"I didn't think I was horrible out there, I just couldn't find a way to get in front of enough of them," Raycroft said.

Souray's 22 goals - 16 on the power play - are the most by an NHL defenseman since Sergei Gonchar scored 26 for Washington in 2001-02.

Jean-Sebastien Aubin replaced Raycroft and the Maple Leafs fought back to close within one on goals by Williams and Steen early in the third.

Battaglia gave Toronto a brief 1-0 lead with his 11th goal 4:10 in.

Kovalev, who had been sidelined since Feb. 10, when he was benched for most of the third period of a 5-3 loss to Ottawa, set up Plekanec's tying goal at 5:48. The Czech center danced off to the left corner and banged his hands against the glass in celebration after he beat Raycroft with a shot from the edge of the crease.

Ryder temporarily drew even with Souray for the team lead in goals when he put the Canadiens up 2-1 with his 21st as he drove a slap shot past Raycroft for his 13th power-play goal.

Johnson made it 3-1 lead late in the period with his 10th goal at 19:10.

McCabe scored his 11th goal 1:32 into the second as Toronto took advantage of Steve Begin's interference penalty at the end of the first to pull to 3-2.

Koivu, who has been battling the flu, made the Canadiens 2-for-2 on the power play when he finished off a play with linemates Chris Higgins and Ryder to restore Montreal's two-goal lead.

"It's been pretty tough for the last couple of days," Koivu said. "I'm just trying to get some liquids in and hope it's going to be over in the next couple of days."

Raycroft made a spectacular glove save to deny Kovalev at 12:21 while a penalty was being called on Hal Gill for cross-checking. Raycroft's outing came to a sudden end just 3 seconds after the ensuing faceoff when Souray drove a shot past him from the right point to increase the lead to 5-2.

Notes: Aubin stopped all eight shots he faced. ... Newly acquired Canadiens D Josh Gorges will join the team Tuesday. Gorges was acquired along with San Jose's first-round pick in 2007 on Sunday in a trade that send Craig Rivet and Montreal's fifth-round pick in 2007 to the Sharks. ... The Canadiens assigned RW Andrei Kostitsyn to Hamilton of the AHL earlier in the day.

FINAL 1 2 3 T
Toronto 1 1 2 4
Montréal 3 2 0 5

TOR: BATTAGLIA, B. (04:10 in 1st), MCCABE, B. (PPG, 01:32 in 2nd), WILLIAMS, J. (01:02 in 3rd), STEEN, A. (04:40 in 3rd)
MTL: PLEKANEC, T. (05:48 in 1st), RYDER, M. (PPG, 14:12 in 1st), JOHNSON, M. (19:10 in 1st), KOIVU, S. (PPG, 10:02 in 2nd), SOURAY, S. (PPG, 12:24 in 2nd)

SCORING SUMMARY

1st Period
04:10 BATES BATTAGLIA, Assists: JOHN POHL and HAL GILL
05:48 TOMAS PLEKANEC, Assists: ALEX KOVALEV
14:12 PPG - MICHAEL RYDER, Assists: SAKU KOIVU and ANDREI MARKOV
19:10 MIKE JOHNSON, Assists: RADEK BONK
2nd Period
01:32 PPG - BRYAN MCCABE, Assists: MATS SUNDIN and TOMAS KABERLE
10:02 PPG - SAKU KOIVU, Assists: CHRIS HIGGINS and MICHAEL RYDER
12:24 PPG - SHELDON SOURAY, Assists: SAKU KOIVU
3rd Period
01:02 JEREMY WILLIAMS, Assists: BATES BATTAGLIA and MATS SUNDIN
04:40 ALEX STEEN, Assists: BRYAN MCCABE

PENALTY SUMMARY
1st Period
07:41 MURRAY, G. : Tripping - 2 min
13:58 WOZNIEWSKI, A. : Hooking - 2 min
20:00 BEGIN, S. : Interference - 2 min
2nd Period
09:03 O'NEILL, J. : Roughing - 2 min
12:21 GILL, H. : Cross checking - 2 min
15:05 PEREZHOGIN, A. : Interference - 2 min
3rd Period
09:48 KOMISAREK, M. : Interference - 2 min
11:48 PONIKAROVSKY, A. : Interference - Goalkeeper - 2 min

SHOTS ON GOAL
1st 2nd 3rd T
Toronto 6 16 14 36
Montréal 11 8 5 24

Saves - Shots
Goalies Team EV PP SH Total
AUBIN TOR 5 - 5 2 - 2 1 - 1 8 - 8
RAYCROFT TOR 10 - 12 1 - 4 0 - 0 11 - 16
AEBISCHER TM 27 - 30 5 - 6 0 - 0 32 - 36

Toronto Skaters
G A +/- SH PIM TOI
BELAK 0 0 0 0 0 5:28
GREEN 0 0 0 1 0 6:27
WILLIAMS 1 0 1 3 0 7:18
WOZNIEWSKI 0 0 0 1 2 13:31
KILGER 0 0 1 2 0 14:22
GILL 0 1 1 0 2 14:28
O'NEILL 0 0 1 3 2 15:38
POHL 0 1 1 1 0 16:07
STEEN 1 0 1 2 0 16:32
BATTAGLIA 1 1 2 1 0 17:13
WHITE 0 0 1 2 0 17:29
STAJAN 0 0 0 2 0 17:36
COLAIACOVO 0 0 2 2 0 18:27
ANTROPOV 0 0 -2 2 0 20:08
SUNDIN 0 2 0 6 0 20:33
PONIKAROVSKY 0 0 -2 5 2 20:39
MCCABE 1 1 0 2 0 27:31
KABERLE 0 1 -2 1 0 28:20

Montréal Skaters
G A +/- SH PIM TOI
LAPIERRE 0 0 -2 2 0 9:45
LATENDRESSE 0 0 -2 1 0 10:23
PEREZHOGIN 0 0 1 3 2 11:46
BEGIN 0 0 -2 1 2 13:32
KOVALEV 0 1 1 1 0 13:35
RYDER 1 1 -1 2 0 14:04
KOIVU 1 2 -1 2 0 14:18
MURRAY 0 0 1 0 2 14:49
PLEKANEC 1 0 1 2 0 15:21
DANDENAULT 0 0 -1 0 0 15:57
STREIT 0 0 -1 0 0 16:40
HIGGINS 0 1 -1 2 0 17:16
JOHNSON 1 0 1 1 0 18:10
BONK 0 1 1 1 0 19:12
BOUILLON 0 0 -1 2 0 20:10
SOURAY 1 0 -1 3 0 21:04
KOMISAREK 0 0 1 0 2 21:37
MARKOV 0 1 1 1 0 24:33

Other Facts
Attendance: 21273
Referees: Stephane Auger, Bill McCreary
Linesmen: Lonnie Cameron, Jean Morin

Total Mileage: 650 Miles

Total Miles Travelled:
128,685 Miles!

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Page Last Updated: April 1, 2010