As we’ve seen in the past games between these two teams are generally close, and tonight was no exception with the Montreal Canadiens winning in overtime with a score of 3-2.

Goals came from Scott Gomez, Tomas Plekanec and Andrei Kostitsyn with the OT winner. Andrei Markov had two assists while Mike Cammalleri added one assist of his own.

Jaroslav Halak had yet another outstanding outing stopping 47 of 49 shots to give him a .959 save percentage. This records Halak’s 4th win in a row and gives the Canadiens the 2 points that they needed to spring ahead of both the Atlanta Thrashers and New York Rangers who both have 40 points.

With the assist tonight, Andrei Markov has 6 points in the 5 games that he has played this season. Just imagine if he didn’t get injured…The sky is the limit.

Three Stars: 3. Mike Komisarek 2. Andrei Kostitsyn 1. Jaroslav Halak

Game Highlights

Last year it was P.K. Subban who represented the Canadiens on Team Canada but this year there are no Canadiens on Team Canada. We do have some prospects on other teams however, so let’s take a look at them. First off let’s look at what teams are in which group.

Group A: Canada, Slovakia, USA, Latvia, and Switzerland*
Group B: Sweden, Russia, Czech Republic, Finland, and Austria*

* Switzerland and Austria are the teams promoted after winning Division A last year.

In total, the Montreal Canadiens have four prospects representing three different countries in the top division with Finland containing the biggest representation so let’s start with them!

As I said above, Finland is playing two Montreal Canadiens in Petteri Simila, a goaltender for Niagara IceDogs in the Ontario Hockey League, and Joonas Nattinen, the 6′2″ center from the Espoo Blues of SM-liiga.

Petteri Simila hasn’t exactly had his best season, but considering it’s his first season playing in North America, a slow start is acceptable. He’s played 11 games with Niagara recording 1 win , 4 losses and 3 ties with an .891 save percentage and a 4.14 goals against average. Simila will be wearing jersey #28.

Joonas Nattinen is a big two-way center with very good vision and sees the game very well. Hockey’s Future has his ranked 9th among all Montreal Canadiens prospects. Nattinen is a guy you’ll see on an energy line in the NHL but I’m not sure where we’ll see in in the WJHC. He’ll be sporting jersey #29.

Moving onto Russia we have Maxim Trunev. Trunev has been an elusive prospect for the Habs as it’s unsure if he’ll ever come over the North America but his talent is unquestioned. Trunev is currently playing for the Cherepovets Severstal of the KHL and has recording 2 goals and 1 assist in 21 games. Just remember when those numbers don’t seem high, he’s only 19! This right-handed right winger will be in the #11 jersey.

Our last representative, playing for Team USA, is Danny Kristo. Kristo was drafted in the second round, 56th overall by the Canadiens and currently plays for the University of North Dakota. In 18 games this season Kristo has 6 goals and 10 assists along with 6 penalty minutes. This will be Kristo’s second straight WJHC. Last year he recorded 1 goal in 6 games with a +2 defensive rating and was mainly used as a third-liner but expect a bigger role from the tiny winger this year. Kristo will be dawning the #8 jersey this year.

Well, that’s it! WJCH action begins today, don’t miss any of it!

A starting goaltender has not been announced but it’s hard to believe that Jacques Martin will not go with the hot hand in Jaroslav Halak who has won his last three games with some excellent numbers. Price does however tend to do very well against Toronto but we’ll have to see.

Tomas Plekanec will look to continue his stellar play notching 9 points in his last 3 games! Plekanec now ranks 2nd in the league with 36 assists and 6th in the league with 43 points. He’ll expect a pretty big raise I’m thinking.

Live Streaming Links for Montreal Canadiens vs Toronto Maple Leafs
- http://www.justin.tv/shlimebox/old

Halak had his third straight outstanding performance stopping 46 of the 47 shots that he faced giving him a .978 save percentage. Halak’s value is rising quicker then ever these days, but does anyone want to see him traded? I don’t really think that we could get a better goalie tandem right now.

Benoit Pouliot played his first game as a Canadien last night amassing 13 minutes of ice time with no points and 2 shots on goal.

Three Stars: 3. Glen Metropolit 2. Jaroslav Halak 1. Tomas Plekanec

Game Highlights

Jaroslav Halak will get his third straight start after two excellent performances. Halak has only faced the Hurricanes twice in his career recording a loss in one and was pulled in the other. He also has a career .879 save percentage against them.

Benoit Pouliot will make his Canadiens’ debut tonight and will most likely play on a line with Scott Gomez and Sergei Kostitsyn whom, along with his brother Andrei, have been named to the Belarus Olympic team.

*** Note: This is a sticky thread. Continue past this thread for regular Montreal Canadiens news ***

December 27th
Austria vs Russia 2:00pm EST SVT Stream
USA vs Switzerland 4:00pm EST
Czech Republic vs Finland 6:00pm EST TSN2 Stream
Latvia vs Slovakia 8:00pm EST

2010 Team Canada Roster

- Schedule and Results
- Standings
- Scoring Leaders

December 22nd
Canada: 3 vs Finland: 0

December 23rd
Canada: 3 vs Czech Republic: 2

December 26th
Czech Republic: 1 vs Sweden: 10
Canada: 16 vs Latvia: 0
Russia: 6 vs Austria: 2
USA: 7 vs Slovakia: 3

Unfortunately it appears that Marc-Andre Bergeron may have been injured on his game winning goal by Johan Hedberg’s skate. We should know more very very soon.

Halak made 47 saves in a .940 save percentage performance for a second straight win. He made some great saves and really did a good job at bailing the defense out when they got caught.

Three Stars: 3. Nik Antropov 2. Tomas Plekanec 1. Marc-Andre Bergeron

Game Highlights

Jaroslav Halak will get the start tonight due to his 40 save shutout performance on Saturday against the Islanders. Halak as 1 win and 2 losses in his career versus Atlanta recording an .827 save percentage averaging 4.67 goals against. Not exactly the best stats but we can only hope that he’ll be feeling good after coming off of a shutout.

Andrei Kostitsyn appears to be unstoppable in in the month of December notching 7 goals and 4 assists in 10 games including 2 goals against the Atlanta Thrashers in their last meeting.

Andrei Markov will definitely be a factor as well, especially on the power play where he made a huge splash on Saturday night.

Benoit Pouliot has been called up but will not be in the lineup tonight. Pouliot has a goal and 2 assists in 3 games with the Hamilton Bulldogs during his reconditioning assignment.

Streaming Links: Montreal Canadiens vs Atlanta Thrashers
- http://www.justin.tv/nad_et_pic_4

Halak made some incredible saves in this one and absolutely deserved the shutout. He must have denied Matt Moulson at least 7 times in this one, just ridiculous. He finished with a 40 save performance and his first shutout of the year.

I really hope that with the return of Markov that our luck will turn around because we really need it. After this goals I think the team in general got better just knowing he was on the ice because some nice passing lead to some nice goal chances.

Game Stars: 3. Marc-Andre Bergeron 2. Andrei Markov 1. Jaroslav Halak

Game Highlights