In the Habs Room: Pacioretty meshes with new linemates

COLUMBUS, Ohio

Max Pacioretty called Wednesday’s 3-2 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets his favourite game this season and it went beyond his two third-period power-play goals that sparked Montreal’s comeback.

He was excited about his new association with centre Tomas Plekanec. The line of Pacioretty, Plekanec and Brendan Gallagher dominated every time it was on the ice and produced 18 of Montreal’s 31 shots.

“It seems like all three of us were one-touching and moving the puck,” said Pacioretty. “We had some great chemistry. Pleky is a guy I haven’t played with much, but he’s easy to play with because he keeps it simple. He made our line go and it was fun to play with him.”

While the Canadiens dominated the play throughout the game, they were trailing 2-0 when Pacioretty scored his first goal at 11:30 of the third period.

“The power play was a big topic,” said Pacioretty. “They were talking about it in the media and we talked about it in the room. We watched a lot of clips. We just had to go the same way and wait for a bounce.”

Not quite. Pacioretty admitted that the Canadiens’ power play was disorganized during the first two periods as it went 0-for-4 with only one shot on goal. It took a juggling act from coach Michel Therrien to turn things around.

“We made an adjustment between the second and third periods,” said Therrien, who took P.K. Subban off the No. 1 unit “We put (Andrei) Markov and (Sergei) Gonchar on the points and they did a fantastic job managing the puck and they made good decisions. The result was Pacioretty ended up scoring two goals.”

Pacioretty paid tribute to Columbus netminder Sergei Bobrovsky, describing him as a “great goalie. But, as (Dustin Tokarski) said, he’s human and we had to wait until we got one behind him.”

In between Pacioretty’s ice-breaker and his winner at 15:23, the Canadiens got a tying goal from Subban at 14:24. While Subban didn’t see it that way, it was redemption for a tripping penalty that led to a power-play goal by Ryan Johansen early in the third period.

Subban said he didn’t think his tripping penalty against Cam Atkinson was a penalty — “I thought I was battling for the puck,” he insisted — but Therrien called it an unnecessary penalty and he didn’t give Subban full credit for the goal.

“It was a tough night for him — again,” said Therrien. “It was a great shot but, if you look at the replay, the one guy in front of the net was David Desharnais. And without David we don’t score that goal. He did a helluva job screening the goalie.

Pacioretty extended his goal-scoring streak to five games and has 20 on the season. And the Canadiens snapped a two-game losing streak and have won six in a row on the road.

“We like where we stand,” said Pacioretty. “Obviously, when you lose two in a row, you’re not feeling good about yourselves leaving the rink, but we’re in a great spot and we have a chance to pile up some points before the (all-star) break. We have to use the momentum.”

Earlier in the day, Therrien said he was happy to hear that Jiri Sekac had been added to the lineup for the rookie skills competition at the All-Star Game here next weekend.

“It will be a good experience for him,” said Therrien. “That’s how he has to approach it. You learn a lot by learning from the best. It will be a good weekend for him and it can only help his career.”

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“I’m glad that it happened and I’m looking forward to it,” said Sekac, who was added to the roster after Los Angeles Kings forward Tanner Pearson suffered a broken leg.

“It will be exciting to be around all of the NHL superstars. I wasn’t expecting it at all. I was looking forward to going on vacation (but) I’m happy to be a part of it.”