One hundred and ninety nine minutes and a second. That’s how long the Canadiens’ scoreless streak was. Eleven seconds was all that it took for them to break it with back to back goals on Ondrej Pavelec.
Despite having generally a solid first period, complete with a pretty good penalty kill, the Thrashers found themselves giving up back to back goals in under two minutes for the twenty-fourth time this season. Eight times have they come in 39 seconds or less. More often than not, Pavelec has been in net when that happens. Be it him getting easily rattled or distracted, or just general bad decisions, Pavelec does not seem to be able to bounce back from wonky goals scored.
Roman Hamrlik’s goal at 12:56 came after an initial save by Pavelec. Pavs lost the puck, which was between his pad and the left goalpoast, and in the ensuing battle around the net the puck was knocked in. Just eleven seconds later, Mathieu Darche popped home a goal as Pavelec was slightly slow getting back to the net after playing the puck against the boards. Pavs not only didn’t manage to get a puck to his teammates, he also managed to leave the crease open to Darche’s goal.
Chris Thorburn roughed stuff up with Travis Moen to get his team going – Moen shoved around Andrew Ladd – but it remains to be seen if the Thrashers can shake off those two goals and play a better second period.