Staal lifts Canes, series 2-1.

On Wednesday night, Eric Staal scored 3:38 into overtime to give Carolina a 2-1 victory in the Bell Center. The series is now 2-1 in favor of Montréal, and we are guaranteed another home game. Unfortunately, the giveaway on Sunday will be "bang sticks", which I find to be only slightly more desirable than terminal cancer.

The story of Wednesday's game was Cam Ward. He was un freakin believable. He made a series of highlight reel saves in the second period. On most of those saves, he stopped it cleanly, with no rebound. Montréal continued to use their long bomb approach to shooting, which worked great against Martin Gerber. However, it would not work against the 22 year old rookie who was getting his first Stanley Cup start. He came on in relief of Gerber on Monday, and played well, but took the loss.

After a scoreless first, Richard Zednik gave the Habs the lead at 9:17 of the second with a power play goal. It was one of only three power play chances awarded the Habs, and the only one they would connect on.

Rod Brind'Amour tied it at 11:27 of the third after he hustled to get to a loose puck and squeezed it through the five hole of Huet.

With 3:38 gone in the fourth frame, and the Canes enjoying their seventh power play opportunity, Eric Staal lit the lamp with a shot from the point. The game-winner was his first Stanley Cup goal. He now has five points in three games of the second season.

One bit of controversy in the game was an injury to Habs captain Saku Koivu. Early in the first period, he caught a stick to the face from Carolina's Justin "Viva" Williams. Referee Denis LaRue was in perfect position to make a call, but didn't. Carolina gained control of the puck and was streaking down ice, but play was immediately whistled dead when LaRue noticed the injury. Koivu was rushed to a hospital and did not return. He needed a few stitches to close a cut near his left eye, and did not return. It isn't known yet whether Koivu, who wears a half shield, suffered an injury to the actual eye. Tomorrow he will visit with the team opthamologist for what has been called a "precautionary" visit. Koivu's head was very low to the ice at the time, but there still can and should have been a penalty. Obvoiusly it wasn't intentional, but the player still has to be responsible with his stick.

Canadiens players had two different takes on how that went down. While many complained that the referees were nit-picky in some cases, but missed that one, at least one wouldn't play the blame game.

Sheldon Souray:

"You can sit here and talk about the refereeing and whatever, but they're not going to see everything and there have been questionable calls probably all year long. It's black, white and gray this year, the refereeing. You can't blame them but is it frustrating? Yeah, sure it's frustrating. They certainly missed it, but stuff happens during the game. You don't want to blame the referees for anything."

The series will continue on Friday night in the Bell Center, and will return to the RBC Center on Sunday. Friday's puck drop will be again at 7:00. Again, no national TV.