It seems that every year during the Stanley Cup Playoffs one team makes a run that is completely unexpected. Some years it ends with a Stanley Cup championship (Montreal in 93, New Jersey in 2000.) Other years it ends with a team making the finals only to just fall short (Anaheim on 03, Calgary in 04, Edmonton in 06)
Either way when this team comes out of nowhere it gets people thinking what if this happens, what if they pull this off? If the team has a history around them it seems even more magical. That is what we are looking at after Montreal defeated Pittsburgh 4-3 last night to tie up their best of seven series at three games a piece.
Montreal already got our attention in the 1st round when they rallied from a three games to one deficit to eliminate the top seeded Washington Capitals. Now down three games to two and facing elimination once again the Canadiens found a way to win.
Mike Cammalleri continued to be Montreal's best offensive forward scoring the 1st goal of the game to give the Habs the early lead. Sidney Crosby batted a puck out of mid-air for his 1st goal of the series to tie the game at one goal a piece.
After Pittsburgh took a 2-1 lead on Kris Letang's wrist shot in the 2nd period Montreal came storming back. Cammalleri scored again on a backhand shot to tie the game at two. Two and a half minutes later Canadiens defenseman Jaroslav Spacek fired a slap shot from the blue line, beating Marc-Andre Fleury to give Montreal a 3-2 lead.
Maxim Lapierre added an insurance goal in the 3rd period to give Montreal a 4-2 lead. That goal would end up being the game winning goal as Pittsburgh was able to pull within one goal late in the game when Bill Guerin deflected a Sergei Gonchar slap shot past Montreal goaltender Jaroslav Halak.
Halak finished with 34 saves in the game while his counterpart Fleury finished with 21 saves.
So Montreal forces a game seven for the 2nd series in a row against a team that was heavily favored against them. Can they upset the defending Stanley Cup champions and go on their 1st cup run since 1993? At this point I don't know.
When this series started I thought Pittsburgh would win in five games. After this series was tied 2-2 I thought Pittsburgh would win the next two games and end the series. Now that we are tied at three games a piece anything is possible.
Pittsburgh is the defending champs and should be favored to win game seven on Wednesday but the Canadiens are playing with house money and have nothing to lose. I don't think anyone will be surprised at this point if Montreal wins the series.
All I know is that when I come into work tomorrow I'll be wearing my Habs jersey instead of my Crosby jersey hoping for another upset by Montreal.
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