Habs     1

Isles      3

The Isles returned home after an important split in Montreal and handed the Habs a surprising second loss. It is not at all surprising that the Isles could defeat Montreal but it is somewhat surprising that Montreal was the better team all evening and were handed the loss by their back-up. New York started C. McElhinney for only the third time this entire playoffs and despite having only delivered 2 losses in his first 2 starts came up huge in this one making 39 saves and was basically the sole reason for the victory. The Habs outshot their opponent all 3 periods and 40-30 for the game but 1 goal simply won't get it done with the high powered offenses remaining. C. Hart made 27 saves and was not at all the reason for the loss as only a perfect game would have sufficed in this one! Habs will look to even up in Game 4 while the Isles will return to Vasilevskiy to try and get a stranglehold on the series! Isles up 2-1