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May 7, 2010
Mathieu Darche had a tough time in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinal against the Pittsburgh Penguins. He sat on the bench waiting for head coach Jacques Martin to call his number, but the call never came.
It was a different story last night as the Canadiens rallied with two goals in the third period to beat the Penguins 3-2. That tied the series at 2-2 with Game 5 tomorrow night in Pittsburgh.
MONTREAL- MAY 6: Mathieu Darche(notes) #52 of the Montreal Canadiens deflects the puck wide of Marc-Andre Fleury(notes) #29 of the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game Four of the Eastern Conference Semifinals during the 2010 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at the Bell Centre on May 6, 2010 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. (Photo by Richard Wolowicz/Getty Images)Darche played a prominent role during the third period. He assisted on Maxim Lapierre's tying goal and played a regular shift after Martin shortened his bench. Seven of his 13 shifts were in the third period.
"It's always tough," the McGill grad said of his long night on the bench. "The most important thing this time of year is the team and you don't want to be a distraction. But you have pride and you want to contribute. I wasn't able to last game, but tonight he decided to play me and it's nice to be able to reward him by having a good game, especially in the third." While Darche and Lapierre teamed up for the tying goal, Tom Pyatt opened the scoring and assisted on Brian Gionta's winner.
"You need games when your pluggers win," Darche said. "Our big guys have been scoring a lot of goals in the playoffs and tonight it wasn't going in for them and it's nice to get contributions from the third and fourth lines. It's still Gio who scored the winning goal and it's nice to get everyone involved." Martin said he didn't have to give his team a pep talk between the second and third periods and Darche said the players knew what they had to do.
"We were not happy with our first two periods," he said. "They weren't our best in the playoffs; in fact, they were probably our worst. With no disrespect to Pittsburgh because they played well, but we had played two bad periods and we were still only a goal down." Last night was only the second playoff win in the Canadiens' last nine home games, but Darche credited the usual sellout crowd at the Bell Centre with helping them.
"We scored the tying goal and then we just fed off the crowd." Darche said. "In other games, we got on our heels when we took a lead, but tonight we stayed on our toes." The goals by Pyatt and Gionta showed the value of getting pucks to the net.
"I shot from a sharp angle but I saw Travis (Moen) going to the net and I thought there would be a chance for a rebound," said Pyatt, who opened the scoring in the first period.
"I saw (Roman Hamrlik) going for the net and I tried to hit," explained Gionta. "It hit their defenceman (Kris Letang). It was a bit of luck but that's what happens when you put pucks on the net." The Canadiens were outshot 35-25 but had a 16-10 edge in the third period.
"Everyone supported each other," defenceman Hal Gill said. "We were making the little plays and I think we caught them off guard. Every puck was 50-50 and we weren't winning those battles (in the first two periods). Jaro was standing on his head and then we came around and got some goals." Jaro is, of course, goaltender Jaroslav Halak, who has the best save percentage in the playoffs at .940. He made a series of big saves on Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin and his teammates blocked 23 shots. Gill had eight of those and Ryan O'Byrne stopped seven.
The Canadiens have been making a habit of comebacks in this year's playoffs and defenceman Josh Gorges said he wasn't surprised by the team's resiliency.
"I would have been surprised a month ago, two months ago, but I like the way this group has come together the last couple of weeks," Gorges said.
"Everyone's playing for one another. No one wants to go home. We're playing for each other and, as long as we do that, we have a lot left to give."
First Star: Jaroslav Halak continues to be the line of last defence for the Canadiens.
Second Star: Tom Pyatt led the way for the pluggers with a goal and an assist.
Third Star: Hal Gill had eight blocked shots to highlight a solid defensive effort.
Key Number: 0. That's how many goals Richard Trophy winner Sidney Crosby has in this series.
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