Pens beat Habs 2-0

[Habsfan84]

Guy Carbonneau said there's something special about a French-Canadian player coming home to play against the Canadiens.
Pittsburgh Penguins' Dany Sabourin was in that position last night and he turned in his best performance of the season as the shorthanded Penguins defeated the Canadiens 2-0 before the usual sellout crowd of 21,273 at the Bell Centre.
The Penguins were playing without superstar Sidney Crosby, who suffered a high ankle sprain in a 3-0 loss to Tampa Bay Friday night. There's no immediate word on the extent of his injury but he'll be out at least four weeks.

And they lost another player in the opening minute of last night's game when Colby Armstrong slammed into the boards and suffered a bruised hip.
But coach Michel Therrien said the Penguins aren't in a position to worry about who's not in the lineup.
"We've lost the best player in the NHL, but we have to play the games," Therrien said. "People said we were finished when we lost (goaltender Marc-André) Fleury, but we've found a way to win without him. We have to do that again."
Ty Conklin has posted a 10-1-1 record in Fleury's spot, but last night Therrien banked on Sabourin coming up big in Quebec. With 16 family members and friends making the six-hour journey from Val d'Or, Sabourin put on a show as he stopped 31 shots for his second shutout of the season.
The loss left the Canadiens with an 8-8-5 record at home, but when Carbonneau was asked about the Canadiens' shortcomings, he said that sometimes the opposition makes the difference.
"You have to look at the other end of the ice," Carbonneau said. "There are some teams that come here and they see the 21,000 people in the stands (and they get excited). And the French kids from other teams, they enjoy playing here."
That certainly applied to Sabourin, who was making his first start since Dec. 21. He described the experience as "awesome."
"Their goalie played well. You have to give him credit," said Christopher Higgins, who led the Canadiens with five shots. "He made some nice saves, but we were missing that little bit. It seems other nights we have someone supply that spark, but tonight we were missing that little something.
"I think one of the problems is that, when we're not scoring, we try to be a little too cute," Higgins added. "There were times we had shots, but we held on to the puck a little too long. You saw that on our power play. We moved the puck around and it looks pretty, but we're not scoring."
The Canadiens went 0-for-2 with the extra man last night and are 0-for-8 in their past three games.
"It looked like we didn't have the jump we've had the past couple of weeks," captain Saku Koivu said. "We weren't getting the odd-man rushes we've been getting. We were a step behind, but they played smart. They didn't force anything."
"I think we could have worked a little harder," Carbonneau said. "Our passing was a little off, our shots were a little off. I don't think we had 20 guys playing 100 per cent."
The loss allowed the Penguins to move one point ahead of the Canadiens in the Eastern Conference. It also allowed them to move ahead of idle New Jersey into first place in the Atlantic Division.
The Penguins took a 1-0 lead at 6:14 of the opening period when Georges Laraque held off Josh Gorges behind the Canadiens' net and set up Jeff Taffe in the slot. It was only the second goal of the season for Taffe, who started the season in the minors and didn't join the Penguins until Dec. 20.
That was the only goal of the game until Evgeni Malkin scored into an empty net at 19:47.
The Canadiens are home to the Boston Bruins Tuesday night and travel to New Jersey Thursday for their final game before the all-star break.

Gazette three stars: 1. Dany Sabourin 2. Evgeni Malkin 3. Mike Komisarek