Audette returns to spark Canadiens
Canadian Press
3/1/2003
MONTREAL (CP) - Jose Theodore brought his `A' game to the Bell Centre just when the Montreal Canadiens needed it.
Theodore made 37 saves and Donald Audette scored 6:47 into the third period to give the Canadiens a 1-1 NHL tie with the Vancouver Canucks and end a five-game losing streak on Saturday night.
``We got a big point against one of the best teams in the league,'' said Theodore, last season's Hart and Vezina Trophy winner who has only one win and a tie in his last 10 games.
``Our penalty killing has been excellent the last few games and this time we were against one of the best and never panicked.''
Trevor Letowski deflected in Ed Jovanovski's point shot to put Vancouver ahead 49 seconds into the third period.
The Canucks (38-17-10-0), the only NHL club not to lose in overtime this season, moved to one point behind the idle Dallas Stars for first place in the NHL Western Conference, both with 17 games left to play.
``If we had scored early it would have been different because we had chances to take the lead,'' said Canucks winger Todd Bertuzzi, whose club took a 9-0 lead in shots in the opening minutes and had four of its five power plays in the first period.
``Their goalie played really excellent, but you've got to expect Theodore to play well.''
The tie left the Canadiens (24-27-8-7) four points behind Boston for the eighth and final playoff spot in the NHL Eastern Conference.
Montreal had a glittering chance to win it when Trevor Linden was sent off on a questionable tripping call against Saku Koivu in overtime, but then it was goalie Peter Skudra's turn to come up big for the Canucks.
The Canucks outshot Montreal 38-21.
Montreal native Brandon Reid, playing in his first NHL game, won a faceoff in the Habs' zone from veteran Doug Gilmour back to Jovanovski, whose weak wrist shot was deflected by Letowski between Theodore's pads.
Reid, who was called up from Manitoba of the AHL on Friday, said playing his first game in Montreal was a dream come true.
``I wanted to perform in my home town,'' said Reid, who bought up 21 tickets for family members, plus others for his girlfriend's family and his friends.
``It's really fun to play at the NHL level. I've worked my whole life for this. I never had this much emotion in my life. The national anthem was probably the most touching time. I was looking around. It was unbelievable.''
A three-man rush saw Saku Koivu set up Jan Bulis, who slipped the puck to Audette for a shot into an open side past Peter Skudra.
The only Hab not content after the game was defenceman Craig Rivet, who took exception to the sellout crowd of 21,273 booing the Montreal power play, which went 0-for-3.
``It'll be good to go on the road,'' said Rivet, whose team begins a six-game road trip Wednesday in Anaheim. ``The crowd is not helping us.
``It seems like they don't want us to have success. They don't make it easy for us. Other teams do the same things we do on the power play and you don't hear booing. I just had to get that off my chest.''
Each team had a goal disallowed in the first period, both because the whistle was blown before the puck entered the net.
In the second, Henrik Sedin bunted Todd Bertuzzi's high pass in on a power play, but that was also disallowed because he was ruled to have had his stick too high.
Yanic Perreault, who has 20 goals this season but only one in the last two months, was a healthy scratch for the first time in his two years in Montreal.
``All I can do is go into the gym and try to get back into the shape I was in before I got hurt,'' said Perreault, who missed eight games a month ago in with a knee injury. ``I'm not going to start anything.
``The focus here is on making the playoffs. If this is better for the team and the lines click better, that's fine.''
The Canucks began a five-game road trip that will take them to Boston on Monday night, followed by games in Philadelphia, Columbus and Toronto.
Vancouver captain Markus Naslund was shut out and saw Pittsburgh's Mario Lemieux, who scored a goal Saturday against Colorado, join him at the top of the NHL scoring race, each with 84 points.
Mattias Ohlund (knee), Dan Cloutier (knee) and Artem Chubarov (abdominal strain) missed the game for the Canucks.
Cheers,
Aquaman