Carey Price leads Montreal Canadiens to 3-2 win over Calgary Flames

Photo by Vincent Ethier/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Photo by Vincent Ethier/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Led by Carey Price’s 43 saves, the Montreal Canadiens got a much-needed 3-2 win over the Calgary Flames. 

The Montreal Canadiens are in a bit of a slump. Entering Thursday’s game against the Calgary Flames, they had lost three of their last four games and four of their last six. Though the Habs hardly played well as a team on Thursday, star goaltender Carey Price had a vintage performance, carrying them to a 3-2 win.

Despite being outshot to the tune of 45 to 22, the Canadiens won, in large part thanks to Price. He made 43 saves on the night. Price had arguably his best performance of the young 2018-19 season, posting a .956 save percentage.

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His only better performance this season? A shutout against the Boston Bruins. But even during that game, Price didn’t face the high-quality chances he had to stop against the Flames. He didn’t get any breaks, as Calgary had at least 13 shots on goal in each period, including an eye-popping 19 in the second.

The Flames had 38 scoring chances overall, with 33 of them coming at five-on-five. 41 of the shots came at five-on-five, with Price stopping all but one of them. Price hasn’t been very good this season, but he sure was against the Flames.

Is The Price Right?

This is the kind of performance the Canadiens haven’t seen from their franchise goaltender in quite some time. It used to be Price would carry them in just about every single game. But unfortunately for the Canadiens, they haven’t seen that from him on a consistent basis in a while.

Montreal is hoping this amazing performance is something Price can build off of. They no longer need him to be a Vezina Trophy-caliber goaltender to win games. For the first time in a while, Price has a great team in front of him. These kinds of games used to be fairly common for the Canadiens, where the goaltender would have to bail them out. But now they rarely happen.

Price’s struggles have been quieted by the Habs’ surprising start, which finds them in third place in the Atlantic Division. For them to continue their surprising season, the Canadiens need the best goalie in the world to be the best goalie in the world. Price sure looked like his old self on Thursday.