TBL @ MTL: Praising Antti

MONTREAL - Antti Niemi didn't pick up a win on Saturday night, but he certainly delivered the goods.

The 34-year-old Finnish goaltender made 36 saves - including six saves in overtime - en route to earning third star honors in a 4-3 shootout loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning at the Bell Centre.
It marked the second straight outing in which Niemi was stellar in between the pipes after besting the New York Rangers on Thursday night with a 31-save effort on home turf.
That, of course, came just hours after the Canadiens revealed that starter Carey Price was sidelined indefinitely with a concussion.
Head coach Claude Julien wasn't at all surprised to see Niemi play his heart out against Jon Cooper's contingent in the Habs' final outing before Monday afternoon's trade deadline, noting that the 10-year NHL veteran has been a consummate workhorse since joining the group back in mid-November.
"Probably what you saw is what you see every day in practice - how he battles and how he competes - he does that every day. This wasn't something that wasn't natural for him. It was just what he does. Maybe he had a tough start this year, but he's won a Stanley Cup with Chicago and he's a good goaltender, and right now he's serving us really well," praised Julien. "We've got an injury to a really good goaltender and he stepped in and he's doing the job. It's been pretty impressive, for what he's gone through and he came here with a great attitude. Not only that, I think he's put a lot of enthusiasm in our group, because they love the way he competes, and that's contagious."

Niemi was especially good when the Canadiens got themselves into penalty trouble early in the third period as Byron Froese and Phillip Danault were called for infractions just 14 seconds apart.
While Ryan Callahan managed to tie things up at three while the Lightning were up a man, the situation could have been far worse if not for Niemi's heroics.
He also came up clutch again in the extra frame when Joe Morrow headed to the penalty box for high-sticking.
"He played like he always does. He's a good goalie," said Jonathan Drouin. "Nemo played a good game at the other end of the rink, whether it was 5-on-3, 4-on-3 or even 3-on-3 in overtime, which generally puts an end to games. He made good saves on the penalty kill, and that was really important."
For his part, Niemi was proud to give the top team in the Eastern Conference a hard time all night long, even if Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov also managed to light the lamp behind him in regulation time before Point eventually settled the score with the lone shootout tally.
"It's hard to say anything about the goals. But, towards the end I started feeling the puck and tracking it pretty well. I was able to stay patient and just wait and see what happens," explained Niemi. "It's good to get a point from them. I feel good about that."

As he should, and when it was all over the Bell Centre faithful rewarded him with a standing ovation for a job very well done.
"That's always nice," said Niemi. "We were playing well. It's great to see that they like it, too."