PHILADELPHIA — Montreal Canadiens head coach Guy Carbonneau has everyone guessing who will be in goal tonight for the fourth game of their NHL Eastern Conference semi-final against the Philadelphia Flyers.
Carbonneau and his players say they still have confidence in struggling 20-year-old rookie Carey Price, even though he has lost four of his past six outings and was pulled on Monday after a dismal second period in which he gave up three goals on seven shots in Montreal's 3-2 loss.
But Carbonneau, whose team trails 2-1 in the series, would not even hint whether his goaltender will be Price or backup Jaroslav Halak.
Halak took Price's place during the third game, but faced only two shots in the third period.
Montreal Canadiens captain Saku Koivu has his shot blocked by Philadelphia Flyers' goalie Martin Biron in the first period of Game 3. (Tom Mihalek/Associated Press)
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Philly notches three goals in the second period to knock Habs netminder Carey Price out of the game
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- Montreal Canadiens
- Philadelphia Flyers
- Martin Biron
- Patrice Brisebois
- Jaroslav Halak
- Mike Knuble
- Mike Komisarek
- Carey Price
- Bryan Smolinski
“You are going to know at 7 p.m.,” Carbonneau said with a wry smile.
Halak, 22, was seeing his first action in the Stanley Cup playoffs with his relief performance.
Price also is experiencing his first foray into the NHL postseason. It has been a roller-coaster ride for the youngster from Anahim Lake, B.C.
In his first four games, he was in form and stopped 115 of 120 shots, a .958 save percentage. In the past six games, he has given up 25 goals on 148 shots, a .831 save percentage, even though one of the games was a 25-save shutout, the seventh game of the Canadiens' first-round series against the Boston Bruins.
“I think it's just like a good goal scorer when he stops scoring, he can lose his confidence,” Carbonneau said of his goalie's psyche right now.
Both Carbonneau and Canadiens assistant coach Roland Melanson, who also tutors the goalies, held pep talks with Price yesterday. Carbonneau, who won a total of three Stanley Cup titles with the Canadiens and Dallas Stars, has tried to press on his players this spring to wash good or bad performances out of their minds immediately and focus on the next game.
“Yesterday was yesterday,” Carbonneau said. “We can't score four goals this morning.”
Price's teammates support him and have faith that he can bounce back the way he did in the first-round series, when, after losing the fifth and sixth games, he shut out the Bruins in the series finale.
“Why not?” Montreal veteran Bryan Smolinski said. “He's being doing a great job for us for a long time now. He's 20 years old, and I'm a big believer that you take a step backward to take a giant leap forward. Carey will do that for us.”
“He's a competitive kid,” Canadiens defenceman Mike Komisarek added. “People may not think so because his demeanour is so calm. But he wants to win badly. The guys still feel good about our team and we still feel good about Carey.”
Price or Halak would feel better if the Canadiens' skaters could get a lead to work with in the fourth game. In the first three games of this series, the Flyers have jumped out to 2-0 leads in the first two games and 3-0 on Monday. In the previous series, the Canadiens scored first in six of the seven games.
“I thought we have been playing well enough,” said Smolinski, whose team had a whopping 20 scoring chances in the second game and 18 more on Monday. “The only thing we haven't done yet in this series is play with the lead.”
The Canadiens could do a better job creating traffic in front of Flyers goalie Martin Biron, much the way the Philadelphia skaters have been harassing Price.
Carbonneau was coy not only abut who his starting goaltender will be, but also whether there will be any further lineup changes. It appears that veteran defenceman Patrice Brisebois has recovered from his mysterious leg injury and will be available tonight.
The Flyers are expected to have veteran Mike Knuble back in action. He missed the past five games with a hamstring injury.
