NSH@MTL: Running into Rinne

MONTREAL - Brendan Gallagher would've liked to be celebrating his 20th goal of the season under better circumstances.

Actually, the circumstances were pretty good at the moment the 25-year-old recovered his own blocked shot and put it past Predators netminder Pekka Rinne to give the Canadiens a 1-0 lead as the game approached the halfway mark. The Habs had performed commendably in the opening frame, outshooting Central division-leading Nashville 8-5 and out-hitting them 14-5 while holding the Preds' potent offense off the scoresheet.

"I wanted to be better than I was last year, more consistent. If I'm being honest, I had more fun scoring 10 goals last year than I have this year," admitted Gallagher, who reached the milestone for the second time in his career after notching a career-high 24 in 2014-15. "It's been a bit of a frustrating season for the group."
The only thing that was frustrating for the Canadiens in this first and only visit by Nashville to Montreal this season was their inability to convert a slew of quality scoring opportunities, a result that can mostly be attributed to a stellar night at the office by Rinne.
"He's a really good player for them, he was making big saves," continued Gallagher, who was one of six Canadiens to record four shots on net (Logan Shaw, for his part, managed five). "We had a lot of prime chances to put on their goalie, and he stepped up. We tried to get it around the net and make it tough on him, but big players make big plays, and that's what he did."
Many of those quality chances came from a relative newcomer to the Montreal roster, a youngster by the name of Nikita Scherbak who proved on Saturday that he more than belonged on a line with Alex Galchenyuk and Jonathan Drouin.
"I feel more confident. That was the best game that I felt really confident in tracking Drou," described Scherbak, one of those aforementioned players to have registered four shots on the night. "We made some plays, we were moving around. It was probably my best game."

With Rinne shutting the door and keeping the Preds alive, Scott Hartnell evened the score late in the second to set the stage for Kevin Fiala's go-ahead goal at 12:19 of the third.
Nashville would hold the line in spite of a flurry of Canadiens chances. But with the clock winding down and Carey Price on the bench in favor of an extra attacker, the Habs pressed on in the Preds' zone, passing the puck around and attempting shots before Jeff Petry fed Jonathan Drouin with a backhand pass which the Sainte-Agathe native one-timed into the net to square things up 2-2.

It was virtually all Habs in overtime - they peppered Rinne with 10 shots to the Preds' two - but the Finn stood tall and helped ensure the game would be decided in a shootout. With Price enjoying a strong performance of his own, it was anyone's guess who would come out on top.
Ryan Ellis scored the only goal of the shootout to give the two points to the visitors.
"We probably controlled the pace of play in overtime, we just didn't bury. They have a good goalie over there; he made a lot of big saves tonight, saves a lot of goalies in the world can't make. Our goalie did the same thing," recounted Gallagher, whose 32 points rank second on the Canadiens behind captain Max Pacioretty. "That's what you expect. It came down to a shootout, they got one by our guy. [It was] a great move, I don't know what you could do on it, and we weren't able to get one by theirs."

Despite the team's disappointing finish, head coach Claude Julien reminded reporters that Gallagher was deserving of some kudos for a job well done after coming off a pair of injury-shortened campaigns.
"He's a character player. Every team needs players like him. He shows up every night, and even on nights where it wasn't his best performance, you know he put forth his best effort. He's consistent. He gives the team energy and he deserves to be rewarded. He did everything he could tonight, and he's been getting the bounces," he concluded. "His teammates like him, he's the kind of guy you can win with. He's respected by all."