Second straight road game. Second straight overtime win. On Saturday evening, the Montreal Canadiens were the victor as they handed the Nashville Predators a 2-1 overtime loss in front of a sold out 17,113 crowd at the Bridgestone Arena. Max Pacioretty wristed the game winner at 2:31 of overtime past Nashville’s Pekka Rinne.

PHOTO CREDIT - NHL.com

Whitby - November 13, 2011 - Second straight road game. Second straight overtime win. On Saturday evening, the Montreal Canadiens were the victor as they handed the Nashville Predators a 2-1 overtime loss in front of a sold out 17,113 crowd at the Bridgestone Arena. Max Pacioretty wristed the game winner at 2:31 of overtime past Nashville’s Pekka Rinne.

With the overtime win, the Canadiens now pull back to .500 with a 7-7-2 record and are just two points shy of eighth place in the Eastern Conference. Nashville head coach Barry Trotz coached in his 1,000 game for the Predators. Trotz is just the fourth NHL coach to achieve such an honour.

While much credit needs to be given to the Canadiens’ style of play, drive and tenacity, the Predators did look like a tired team on this night. The Predators had just returned to Nashville after being on a five-game road trip. The home team, normally recognized as one for puck possession abilities, turned alot of pucks over at either blueline, but give them full credit, they did play a strong game.

The contest was very much a tight game with few scoring chances given by either club. Les Bleu-Blanc-Rouge played a very good road game to get the two points. The team collectively stayed out of the penalty box for the most part.

David Desharnais opened the scoring at 13:49 of the opening frame after some strong work was displayed by linemate Erik Cole. Shea Weber scored the only other marker in regulation at 3:20 of the second period to tie the game at one.

Scott Gomez made his return to action and saw 12:06 of icetime and was a minus-1 on Montreal’s fourth line. Gomez also played 2:20 minutes on the Canadiens’ power-play. Earlier in the day, recent call up Mike Blunden was re-assigned to Montreal’s AHL affiliate, the Hamilton Bulldogs.

The announced three stars of the game were Montreal’s Max Pacioretty (3rd star, game winning goal), Peter Budaj (2nd star, 25 saves, .962 save percentage) and Nashville’s Pekka Rinne (1st star, 23 saves, .920 save percentage).

The Canadiens next see action on Monday evening in Montreal when they host the Buffalo Sabres.