Game 61: Halak delivers stunning victory

Coupled with a 5-3 victory over Ottawa on Saturday, it marked Montreal's first back-to-back wins in more than a month, and was a huge lift for a club that is trying to find a consistency in its game headed into the final six weeks of regular-season hockey. It was Halak's first shutout of the season, and the fourth of his NHL career. And he was worth every bit of it, making 34 saves.

The Canadiens snapped a long, ugly skid against the Canucks, most recently having lost a 4-2 decision on the west coast 10 days ago, in the fourth game of a very forgettable six-game road trip. Vancouver, which had eight wins in nine February games, had gone 10-0-0 with one tie in 11 meetings with Montreal since their last loss in the series Nov. 30, 2000. 

This one was signed, sealed and delivered by Halak, who made a half-dozen seemingly impossible saves in what was the best goaltending performance of the year by a Montreal netminder.

The Canucks finally outshot Montreal 34-17.

Brilliant goaltending, and a wonderful diving pass by captain Saku Koivu, helped give the Canadiens a 1-0 first-period lead.

Time and again, Halak turned aside Canucks tries, stoning Vancouver shooters and those – hello, Mats Sundin – who tried crafty cross-crease passes.

Then, just as Plekanec's slashing penalty was expiring late in the first, with Alex Kovalev's double minor having given the Canucks a 5-on-3 advantage for 2:04, Koivu made a scrambling dive to tip the puck into the neutral zone, Plekanec bursting out of the box.

Plekanec made no mistake at 18:42, racing in alone from centre ice to beat Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo with a stick-side shot for his 16th goal of the season and fifth (with an assist) in the 10 periods of hockey he's been back since serving a two-game suspension.

Plekanec added another assist at 16:08 of the second period, threading a perfect pass to the pinched-in Markov, who tipped his eighth of the season past Luongo during a five-minute cross-checking major that had been assessed to Burrows.\

Maxim Lapierre iced it with an empty-net goal, No. 11 of the season overall, with six seconds to play.

But this was Halak, and then some, the Canucks not finding a way to get anything past the Montreal goalie.